


Issues in the Auror Office

by transfiguredtoad



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU - Ginny is an Auror, F/M, Harry and Ginny live in the same apartment building, Harry never went to Hogwarts, Setting - Auror Office, discussion of domestic abuse, mention of suicide (very VERY brief blink and you will miss it)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:21:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 40,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22434814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transfiguredtoad/pseuds/transfiguredtoad
Summary: Ginny Weasley has moved house and started a new job in twenty four hours, and both have brought her close to Harry Potter. At home, he's Harry, her mate, but at work, he's her boss - and fraternising within teams is forbidden. But she's falling for him, and he's falling for her. What are two aurors in love to do?
Relationships: George Weasley/Angelina Johnson (minor), Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks (minor), Sirius Black/Amelia Bones (minor)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 56





	1. Chapter 1

Ginny Weasley closed the door to her flat, depositing her final bag from her shoulder with a groan. Reaching up to rub her shoulder, she leaned her head back against the birch door, rolling it against the eyehole which rubbed against her loose hair. Bringing her bags up had been a long process, due to the slow-going lift and the general weight of her belongings. She owned too many books and not enough pillows.

Looking around her flat, Ginny smiled ever so slightly. Though the flat was empty, she could see how beautiful it could be, how Ginny’s it could be. The floors were light wood and the walls were white. An electric fireplace was the indicator that it was a living room, which led to a tiled-floor kitchen, all white. It was far more modern than the Burrow. While Ginny did not mind the relatively organised vintage chaos of her childhood home, she had wanted something different. And this was as different as it got.

Ginny pushed herself away from her door and glanced at the many bags which clustered beside the door. Her flat was not huge - essentially just a living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom - but it was hers. For the first time, it was fully hers. No family, no academy roommates who left washing up to go mouldy and didn’t ever clean the bathroom. All hers, and in time it would look like hers too.

After graduating from the Auror Academy at the end of July, Ginny had moved back into her parents’ house immediately, which her mother had loved. However, all Ginny had wanted was to find a new flat, ideally in London, and get out of the smothering atmosphere that was her mother’s disapproval of her career choice and her brother’s jealousy that Ginny was doing what he had always dreamed of before he had managed it. When this flat had become available and had been at the top end of Ginny’s price range, Ginny had signed up immediately, despite knowing that she had no furniture and no money to buy it with, until she got paid. She could cope for a few weeks.

There was nothing in the fridge currently either, and, despite Ginny’s moving out, she was still a Weasley, and she was starving. She rolled her neck, grabbed her keys from the small shelf by the door and headed over to her bags of clothes and books and general belongings. Emptying three bags swiftly, she stuffed three large plastic bags into another and searched for her purse.

Leaving the flat, Ginny headed for the supermarket that she had seen earlier. It was a different shop that Ginny had shopped at while she was at the Academy, in the countryside near Manchester, but she had mastered the muggle supermarket and, now, she was sure that she could adapt her skills to ‘Tesco’.

And, when she left, over an hour later, she was ready to write a letter to her father about how well she was adapting to muggle things. The wizarding world generally lived in small villages, where they could find a butchers and a greengrocers and a bakers, or they used wizarding supply companies - specifically the pureblood families. Ginny found it far easier to use the supermarket, where they could find everything at once, and far cheaper than the suppliers.

As she arrived back at the apartment building, she glanced into the small communal area on the bottom floor and saw the back of a man’s head, scruffy hair and a red t-shirt covering a nice pair of shoulders. Considering heading down afterwards, Ginny hurried over to call the lift. 

In her flat, she stacked everything she had bought in the cupboards. She had spent her remaining money on all the store cupboard essentials that she lacked, as well as on the cheapest pan, wok and plates she could find. Boiling the kettle, Ginny grinned. Food made a home, not furniture. There had always been plenty of good food at the Burrow, even when they did not have everything that other homes had.

She made pasta with sauce and then grated a lot of cheese over the top. When she sat down on the floor, leaning against a wall, she realised that this was silly and that there was a perfectly good sofa and television downstairs that she could enjoy while she ate.

The man was still there when she arrived, biting her lip before striding in with as much confidence as she had. When she saw the TV, her eyebrows flew up her face at the realisation that quidditch was playing. “Hello,” she said to the man who had not turned at her approach.

Immediately, he jumped up, wand out. Ginny snorted. “Not very muggle-conscious,” she commented. He gave her a sheepish grin and reached to flatten his hair against his forehead, a move that made Ginny furrow her brow in confusion. Most men would ruffle their hair instead.

“Do you mind if I watch with you?” Ginny asked, nodding at the screen where the Arrows were playing Puddlemere. Ginny had forgotten that it was tonight and indeed that she would be able to watch it, due to the TV downstairs. As the Burrow was without a TV, Ginny had to satisfy herself with the wireless for most quidditch matches.

“Of course,” the man said, grinning at her. He had a nice smile. It made his green eyes light up. He gestured to the sofa and sat back down himself. Ginny moved to the other side and snuggled into the pillow behind her. It was a sofa not unlike those at the Burrow: it had been sat on enough times that it was comfortable, rather than the stiff ones that posh homes usually had. She supposed it was to be expected in a communal living area.

“Your food smells good,” the man said, nodding at the bowl. Ginny grinned and nodded, stirring the pasta, sauce and cheese together with her fork. It did smell good. 

When, a few minutes later, the commentators announced a short injury and sub break, the man said, “When did you move in?”, turning his attractive face towards her. Ginny swallowed her food.

“Just this afternoon,” she told him. “I start a new job tomorrow in London.”

“Wow, cutting it fine,” the man said. “My name is Harry, by the way.”

Ginny smiled and took his extended hand, awkwardly shaking it side by side. “Ginny.” She cleared her throat. “Are you supporting Puddlemere or the Arrows?”

“Puddlemere,” Harry said with an emphatic nod that made Ginny laugh. “Who are you?”

“Harpies when they’re playing, but I’ll support the Arrows if you’re Puddlemere,” she said with a teasing tone. Harry laughed, a pleasant sound that made Ginny like him.

“Do you play?” Harry asked as the players came back out from their break, taking the brooms and waiting for the whistle of the referee. The Arrows beater had been subbed and Ginny thought that that was what caused Harry’s quick smirk. Carla Rajowski was one of the best beaters in the league and losing her was a huge blow to the already losing Arrows.

Ginny nodded. “I played at Hogwarts and then was part of the Manchester Saturday league for the past few years. I play chaser.”

Harry gave her an impressed look. “I play seeker in a Sunday league with work.”

“You any good?” Ginny asked. Harry grinned at her.

“Some have said that I am the best in the league.”

“How big’s the league?” Ginny asked with a taunting grin. Harry narrowed his eyes at her but his grin belied his irritation. “My sister-in-law plays for the Magpies.”

Harry coughed as he choked in surprise, making Ginny cackle. “For the Magpies? Who is your sister-in-law?” he demanded.

“Angelina Johnson-Weasley,” Ginny supplied. “I played with her at Hogwarts.”

Harry whistled lowly. “She’s good. You must have been a Gryffindor.”

Ginny raised her eyebrows at him. “Are you a bit of a fan?” she teased. Harry scoffed but the red rising on his cheeks said differently, making Ginny grin.

The conversation flowed naturally for the next two hours or so, though it was interrupted quite frequently by Harry’s cheers for Puddlemere. It grew later and later, until, eventually, it was eleven o’clock and Harry cursed at the sight of his watch. “I’m really sorry but I’d better go to bed. I have to be in work early tomorrow,” Harry said and he truly did sound sorry.

Ginny’s stomach squirmed at the thought. She met his eyes and then looked away. She should probably go to bed too. It was her first day tomorrow and she should at least try and make a good impression. Briefly, Ginny wondered what Harry did as a job.

Harry stood and gave her another sad look and a further melancholy look at the television, where his favourite team were leading by 130 points, not enough to win if the Arrows caught the snitch. He had taken one step away from the sofa when he turned around, to find Ginny staring at his retreating form.

“I,” he started before shaking his head and taking a step back towards Ginny. He leaned down and she leaned her head up towards him automatically, her lips quirking as he covered them with his own, pulling her up so that they were more comfortable.

Ginny swung her arms around his neck. Perhaps she should have pulled him down. It would have likely been more comfortable kissing on the sofa. He pulled away before she did and Ginny opened her eyes to find his gleaming with lust, his pupils large. Ginny wondered if it was reflected in her own. “I’ve been wanting to do that all night,” Ginny whispered. Harry grinned.

“Same,” he agreed before kissing her again.

Ginny did manage to drag them back down onto the sofa and it was soon far past their bedtimes, but neither cared.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Ginny woke up in Harry’s bed. It was extremely comfortable and, if Ginny wasn’t so excited about starting her new job, it would have been difficult to leave the bed. It did make her imagine the bed that she was going to have in her flat in just a few weeks. She rolled over, expecting to find Harry there, far away on the other side of the huge bed, and furrowed her brow when he wasn’t. 

She pulled herself out of bed and put on his dressing gown, entering into the main apartment area. Finding a note on the kitchen counter, she sighed.

Ginny –   
I had to go into work early today, but I didn’t want to wake you up. You looked too beautiful asleep in my bed. I really want to see you again. Maybe in the common room tonight?  
See you soon,  
Harry

Ginny tucked the note into the pocket of the dressing gown and grabbed her clothes from the previous day. She then left the apartment and went back to her own room, ready to start her new job.

XXX

Harry Potter sat with the twelve other Auror Department team leaders and Gawain Robards, the head of the Auror Office, at the first department head meeting of the new auror year, which started with the new Hogwarts year, every September. 

“Potter,” Robards said as he looked at Harry over the wired frame of his glasses, after finishing speaking to Reggie Tate. “There’s a new case involving the illegal trade of potions. I want you to take it. I’d normally give it to Jennings,” Robards said, nodding his head at the greying head of Potions, Drugs and Narcotics. “But his team is swamped at the moment and you’re not. I’ve got all the details here.” The other department heads passed a file along the table until it was in Harry’s hands.

“There’s been deaths, over ten, all linked to the London PDN ring. There’s a list from St Mungo’s there on the amount of cases they’ve had from PDN this month alone. It’s a dangerous business, Potter, and I want your team on it, mostly, but bring Josie and Dawn in on it too, if you think that it’s necessary,” Robards said, naming Harry’s co-workers who led teams like him. Harry nodded curtly, the thought of the case swirling around his head. He’d not worked in Potions, Drugs and Narcotics, or PDN as the aurors usually called it, since he was in training.

“You can go and do the department briefing now,” the department head said. “Potter, here’s the list of newbies. You make sure they go to the right departments,” Robards said wearily, as though it were not the beginning of a new year. Harry nodded again and he walked out.  
“You’re looking perky today, Potter,” Naomi Logan, head of youth crime and rehabilitation, said as they walked from Robards’ office to the Auror common room, where the briefing was held every Monday, which today included the wonderful job of organising the new aurors who had graduated the Academy a few months ago.

“It’s the start of a new year, Naomi, and I just love organising new aurors. What have I got to be unperky about?” Harry said with a grin, remembering the beautiful girl that he had left slumbering in his bed that morning. Naomi snorted inelegantly.

They entered the common room and a way was cleared for them by the aurors, both new and experienced. Chatter clamoured about the room and, when Harry reached the front of the room and jumped up onto a chair. Some of the chatter died down. “Okay!” Harry shouted. Everybody shut up.

“Thank you, all, and welcome to the Auror New Year. I hope we have all recovered from our hangovers from Friday and are all ready to start again,” Harry said with a warm smile, ignoring the cheers that came from the mention of Friday night. “We have fifty-six new cadets this year and I would like you all to welcome them now,” Harry said, raising his hand and everybody started to clap, although not quite as much as they had at the reminder of drinking.

“Cheers. Other announcements are…” Harry said, trailing off and looking between his fellow department heads. “Oh!” he suddenly remembered a reminder that the receptionist had given him that morning. “I know it’s only September but names for the Christmas party need to be written down before the fifteenth if you want to come. It’s twenty galleons for the night and you get a hotel room. Spouses are welcome, but no kids,” Harry said with a grin. Everybody cheered and Harry laughed. Anna McLaughlin was waving her hand so Harry nodded at her and she jumped up onto a chair beside him, needing the arm that Harry held out to steady her.

“Witness care, guys,” she started and the room groaned. Harry’s lips twitched. “I know, I know and that’s why I’m in charge of it…”

Harry tuned the rest of what Anna was saying out, surveying the room. He frowned when he saw she hadn’t. “Thanks, Anna,” Harry said, seeing she had finished. “Now, I don’t think there is anything else. SATR are sorting out the floo crime?” Harry checked and he saw Tracey Rufford, their sub-team leader, nod. “Excellent and OJLOED are still working with the computer people?” Another nod from Emma Davies. “Brilliant. Okay, you lot can bugger off, except the new cadets.” Harry jumped down and gave a few instructions to the co-leaders of his team, Gemma and Ben, who led their big team out of the room, followed by the rest of the experienced aurors, leaving the new cadets to stay and be sorted into teams.

“Hello!” Harry said to the new aurors. “Welcome to being an Auror. We have a briefing every Monday morning as a full department. You are going to be assigned to a team. In that team, you will be put into a sub-team. From those sub-teams, you are split into a further, smaller team. A sub-sub-team if you like.”

Harry read down the list, pointing out the team leaders as he read the team names. It was boring and took a long time. He could see the new cadets shifting from foot to foot. When he finally reached the end of the list, he found just one cadet waiting. He knew her name before he read it.

“Ginny Weasley,” he read and met her eyes across the room. Even from how far away she was, Harry could see her chocolate eyes worried. The bottom fell out of his stomach when he saw her standing there, a nervous smile on her face. He swallowed. “Right, let’s go, you three,” he said to the three cadets who would be part of the HP team, though only one would be part of his sub-sub-team. Of course, because the world hadn’t fucked him over for a while, it was Ginny.

When they entered the room that was labelled with his name, they found Gemma and Ben just winding down in the HP briefing. Harry left the three cadets, looking at the two boys rather than Ginny. 

Standing up beside his subordinates, he said, “Okay, guys, I’m sure Gemma and Ben have rambled on about everything we’ve got to do this week, so I’m not gonna speak for too much longer. HPBNIW are on that double homicide. The witness is with Anna in witness care, so two of you with witness care training can go and interview her pronto.” Harry made eye contact with the lead on that case, Izzy, and received a curt nod in response.

“Oh,” Harry said, before he could dismiss them and get on with the new case, ”and, lastly, we’ve got that fun residential coming up for team building, so I’m sure we’re all really excited.” The room laughed at that. Harry accidentally made eye contact with Ginny and hated himself for the feelings that bubbled beneath his skin.

They laughed and, dismissing the rest of the aurors, Harry said, “Okay, HPHPHP come to our offices. We’ve got a new case.” He shook the file that Robards had given him and appreciated the excited whoop it received from Alex.

Harry opened the door to their smaller common room and watched them all file in, one by one, Ginny last, her eyes on the ground. He stifled a sigh as he closed the door behind her. His team made a semi-circle in front of the white board where the case details would go. Placing himself in the middle of them, in front of the board, he said, “Everyone, this is Ginny. She’s our new cadet and very welcome on our team.” Harry gave her a tight smile, not meeting her eyes. He remembered the way she had laughed on the sofa the night before, remembered asking to meet her there again that night, on the note he had left this morning. That was out of the window now.

“We have a new case,” Harry said, as though shaking the feelings away with the thoughts. He opened the file. “It’s a PDN case. There’s been ten deaths all linked to the London PDN ring.” The team made eyes with each other, taking in the gravity of the case. Turning to each of his team in turn, he said, “I want Maggie, Simon, Vicky and Cameron to look through the latest PDN cases and find out where the rings are operating most heavily. Lewis, Kenneth and Chloe, I need you to go and visit those lovely pubs and shops in Knockturn Alley and talk to the workers to see if they can give us any names. Robin, Ruby and Stacey, I have a list of the deaths. You’re going to St. Mungo’s to talk to the healers who did the post-mortems. Alex, I need you to go and get all the information from RT on the London PDN ring – big names, drugs most in use, historic deaths and murders.”

With tasks assigned, Harry nodded at them dispersing and announced that he was going to kit Ginny up.

XXX

Ginny swallowed as she followed Harry into the room whose door named it the changing room. It was almost unbelievable that she had not noticed that he was Harry Potter last night, almost unbelievable that she had not told him her job, that he had not told her his. Almost unbelievable that of all the teams, sub-teams and bleeding sub-sub-teams, Ginny ended up in Harry Potter’s.

“I swear I didn’t know,” Harry said honestly, his back to her as he reached up to a shelf above the coat pegs which each held a drawstring bag, named and numbered to clearly show which auror it belonged to. Ginny found Harry’s almost automatically, noted the mud on it, the shoes beneath the bench, before she realised that Harry was waiting for her to reply.

Ginny shrugged. “I didn’t either. I didn’t even notice your scar.”

Harry swallowed. “I went to Diagon Alley yesterday, so I hid it. That’s not your fault.”

“Still, I probably should have recognised you,” Ginny said, sheepishly taking the kit that he offered her and awkwardly folding the exercise clothes into her own drawstring bag.

Harry laughed. “Because I’m such a celebrity?” Ginny grinned, pulling the strings on the bag. “You can hang that there,” Harry said, pointing to the empty peg on the other side of the door. Ginny nodded and did so.

Then, Harry handed her her actual auror robes. “We all get changed in here, by the way, but, if you’re not comfortable with getting changed publically, there are private changing rooms. Some of the others use privacy spells to hide their modesty.” Ginny shrugged. She’d had a life of one bathroom and six brothers. 

Harry swallowed. Ginny watched his adam’s apple bob, before he continued speaking. “You wear the auror robes over whatever you usually wear, which needs to be comfortable. Heels are only acceptable if they’re those ones you can get now that you can change to be flats,” he told her, looking down at her heels. Ginny nodded and demonstrated that, in fact, her heels were the stated example, a gift from her sister-in-law upon graduating the Academy.

“Perfect. We train as a team three times a week: Tuesday mornings, Wednesday afternoons and Friday mornings. You use your kit in the bag for that,” he informed her. Ginny glanced at the bag, not yet numbered or named.

“Great,” she said. “Look, Harry, before we go back out there, I just want you to know that-”

“I know,” Harry interrupted her with a shake of his head. “I’m your boss. Last night was fun but nothing more, okay?”

Ginny nodded, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I’ll put my robes on then. I’ll see you in a minute, boss.” Harry gave her a little grin and then left her to get changed. When the door closed, Ginny pushed her head against it with a sigh. Wasn’t this just all so perfect?

She threw her robes over her head and checked her hair in the mirror above her peg. Deciding she was acceptable, she stepped out of the changing room, back into the main room, where the aurors that Harry had bossed around earlier had dispersed into smaller groups, working at tables or boards.

Harry beckoned to her, from a table where four of the aurors were sitting, paper in front of them on the table. The aurors all looked up at Ginny: one greying woman with a kind smile, an older man perhaps Ginny’s dad’s age, a woman with dark hair and bags underneath her eyes and a muscly man who gave Ginny a crooked smile that mde her like him. They were introduced as Maggie, Simon, Vicky and Cameron, and Maggie would be Ginny’s partner, officially.

“Vicky is our forensics expert,” Harry continued, nodding at the tired woman, who smiled. Ginny smiled back. “Maggie does witness care for our sub-team.” Ginny wanted to get to know the woman who would be her partner better, but Harry led them over somewhere else, to the desks.

“This is your desk,” Harry said, pulling the chair out at an empty desk and then tucking it back in. It was nothing special, just a desk with a board surrounding it, not high enough to block out the face of the person who would be opposite her. That desk was currently occupied by a youngish auror with false eyelashes. “This is Chloe.” Chloe offered her hand and Ginny shook it, admiring her blue nails.

When he had introduced her to two more aurors, who Harry said were his investigative specialists, Lewis and Kenneth, they headed into the door labelled with Harry’s name, and his title of ‘Deputy Commissioner’ beneath it.

“Now, we have the lovely job of paperwork,” he said, gesturing to the seat on the other side of his desk. His own chair was leather with a head rest and Ginny was almost envious of it in comparison to the simple chair that she had at her desk.

“I just need you to run through your close family members with me. Any siblings, your parents, any children,” he said, with half a smile. Ginny’s eyes widened. She cleared her throat.

“I hope you’re ready,” she joked and Harry furrowed his brow. She saw that he soon understood what she meant.

XXX

That night, at eight o'clock, Ginny apparated into her apartment and huffed when she remembered that she had no furniture. Fourteen days til payday seemed like a lifetime away. She was tired enough to sleep but she had no bed. She could sleep on the communal sofa downstairs, but there was always the chance of someone walking in, or of Harry thinking she was waiting for him, in relation to the note that he had left her that morning.

Thankfully, she and Maggie had gone out to the pub to have a hot pot and learn a bit more about each other. Maggie’s last partner had retired two years ago but their team was big enough already that it wasn’t pressing enough to have a new cadet put in right away. Ginny had liked the older woman. In some ways, she had reminded her of her mother, if her mother didn’t care what other people thought of her.

With a plaintive look at the hardboard floors, Ginny decided that she would go downstairs. She could explain the situation to Harry if need be, although that would be very embarrassing and she didn’t want him to feel sorry for her, or to feel awkward around him at work. Grabbing her keys, she left the apartment and jumped into the lift.

Harry was already there. She stood at the door for a moment, wondering whether it was worth the awkwardness. He found her there before she could back out.

“Come in,” Harry told her, his green eyes flashing with something, and Ginny smiled, sitting down on the couch next to him. He was filling out some paperwork, a beer beside him and the quidditch on in the background.

“Early Quidditch match,” Ginny noted, checking her watch. Normally, matches started at just past eleven.

“Euros qualifier,” Harry said absently and Ginny almost cursed herself for forgetting. It was her first day back but that didn’t mean she could forget that her sister-in-law was playing for her country.

“You okay?” Ginny checked, glancing at him and then back at the television, just in time to see Angelina make an assist to goal.

Ignoring Ginny’s cheer - or perhaps not noticing it - Harry sighed. “Four people in my department have told me they’re retiring next August,” he stated. Ginny’s eyes widened.

“From our team?” It was nice calling the team ‘our’. She’d dreamed of this since she had joined the Academy. She had never thought that she would spend the night before sleeping with her boss.

“The overall team. Dawn Bennett, Jim Larson and Simon and Kenneth from our sub-sub-team. Dawn and Jim are both sub-sub-team leaders, so I’m trying to decide who I want to be the next leaders and get them on some courses,” he said, looking over the names.

“Is it not just the people with the most experience?” Ginny queried. Harry shook his head.

“In DB, that would be Salvador Neal and he- well, let’s just say he’s had a bit of trouble,” Harry said, meeting her eyes. Ginny’s lips twitched.

“Wood’s good, isn’t he?” Harry commented idly as the England goalkeeper saved a tricky shot.

“Yeah, he played for Gryffindor at Hogwarts, too. He was good then,” Ginny said.

“Did you play for his team?” he asked. Ginny nodded.

“With Angelina too,” Ginny said, pointing at her as she came onto the screen. “I forgot that she was playing. My parents did suggest I went round to theirs to listen to it on the wireless. Angelina could only get one ticket, while it's the euros, so my brother is there.”

“That’s so cool,” Harry said quietly. “I wish one of my family members was a quidditch player.” Ginny wondered who his family was, given that it was well-known that he was an orphan with no siblings. Distracted by that, she did not notice that two of the players were fighting until Harry whistled lowly.

“What the hell?” Two of the players, Lara Odell from England and Agata Nilsson from Sweden, both highly respected beaters, were having an all-out brawl in the air.

“I love it when stuff like this happens,” Harry commented with a grin. “Want a beer?” he offered. Ginny nodded and he opened a green glass bottle for her.

“Cheers,” she replied, sipping it and finding it pleasantly chilled. “They’re gonna be kicked off the pitch,” Ginny said excitedly. This was the excitement of quidditch that muggle games rarely shared. “Who’ve we got on the bench?”

“Ben Fielder,” Harry replied immediately, “but he’s got nowhere near the skill of Odell. Harry swore quietly.

“But at least Nilsson’s off the pitch. Last game against her, she hit our seeker with a bludger to the head and Hill’s never played again,” Ginny balanced. Harry nodded, his eyes darting back to the screen.

“There you go,” he said, as the ref took them off the pitch. Game started again and they both sat quietly, cheering suddenly at a goal for England every so often.

“Harry, I wanted to tell you something,” Ginny said when they were sitting happily, after Angelina had scored a goal to bring England to a 50-point lead. Harry side-eyed Ginny, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t usually do what I did last night,” she blurted. Harry furrowed his brow, so Ginny clarified, “not after meeting somebody thirty minutes before, anyway.” She looked down to her lap.

“If it makes you feel better, I don’t usually do that either.” That did make Ginny feel oddly better - and a bit special. “In fact, that was the first sex I’ve had in six months.” That shocked Ginny. The way the papers made it out, Harry Potter was sleeping with every woman in Wizarding Britain.

“Oh. Okay then. I just wanted to tell you,” she said, biting her lip.

“Just for the record, I didn’t think you were a slag or anything, for sleeping with me. I just thought we liked each other,” Harry told her, his words slow and stumbling but meaningful.

“Oh. Well, good,” she said, staring down at her lap, wishing she’d changed into something comfier before she came downstairs.

“Ginny, I don’t want things to be awkward,” Harry sighed. 

“Neither do I,” Ginny agreed. Harry nodded.

“Then, let’s agree, they’re not awkward.”

“Can we do that?” Ginny laughed.

“Just did.”


	3. Chapter 3

Ginny woke up abruptly when she heard the communal lounge door open. She looked up, finding Harry standing at the door, an eyebrow raised. “You do have an apartment here, don’t you?” he asked her drily. Ginny sat up sharply, realising what he was seeing, what he was saying. She was too proud to let him know that she had no furniture and had purposefully fallen asleep down there, so that she didn’t have to sleep on the floor.

“Yes,” she said defensively. “I just fell asleep down here last night.”

Harry looked amused, glancing down at his watch. “You’re due in work in fifteen minutes, by the way,” he informed her casually. Ginny jumped up, panic flooding her brain.

“Shit, shit, shit. Cover for me?” she called back, as she dashed past him and out of the room.

“To who?” he asked incredulously. “I’m your boss!”

XXX

It was 9:15 when Vicky and Ginny slipped into the HPHPHP crew room, both looking distinctly dishevelled. “Nice of you to join us,” Harry said. Ginny thought that he looked at her with some amusement but she didn’t want to risk it, so she muttered her apologies.

“Sorry, Harry,” Vicky muttered. Ginny noticed that the late-thirties woman looked pale and haggard, likely due to her one-year-old at home.

“Sit down,” he hurried them. “We need to discuss our progress before we train.”

Ginny listened intently as they discussed what they had learned about the London drugs circle. It wasn’t the biggest circle in the country by a long mile, because the auror office in London was so good at disabling it, but, with the Manchester and Leeds circles so active, the London one had been allowed to grow a bit larger. Each group from the previous day said their bit and Ginny watched Harry take notes on the board. 

It was half an hour later that they were heading for the communal dressing area. Ginny wasn’t particularly fussed about the lack of privacy. She’d grown up with six brothers and one bathroom with a badly-functioning lock, so she was used to not having much privacy. 

Ginny stared at the wall as she got changed into a sports bra and leggings. It felt like the only safe place to keep her eyes, what with so many people changing around her. She did not want to be known as the new girl who looked at people while they changed.

As soon as they were changed, they headed into a larger room, with white walls and smooth flooring, to begin the workout. Ginny had thought that she was prepared. In the Academy, they had trained twice a week, all together like this, and she’d always done her own exercise too, for quidditch. She was wrong. She was not prepared. It was intense, led by somebody she’d not seen before, a man who introduced himself at the end to her as Clive, a fitness instructor. The only hope that Ginny took from the two-hour session was that the others did not struggle as she did, which meant that, hopefully soon, she would not struggle too much with it either.

Ginny spent some time, when things got particularly tough, drinking from her water bottle, taking a break. She got amused and understanding looks from the rest of the aurors, particularly the newer ones who had gone through this more recently. While she drank, she watched.

Harry was attractive, and very fit. There was no denying it. Ginny noticed that it wasn’t only her eyes that were drifting to him again and again. Ginny wondered if Harry knew that Stacey fancied him. She was married and she had a small son, but Stacey’s eyes were never off Harry. Whenever she saw her doing it, Ginny felt jealousy rise in her and she had to force herself to push it back down. Harry wasn’t hers so she could not be jealous.

But that didn’t mean Stacey could have him. Stacey had a husband and a son. She had a family. What sort of a person would give up their family, their entire life to be with her boss? Of course, it could be a purely innocent crush. Ginny was probably just getting ahead of herself, aware that she would quite like to be with Harry, in more than just a staring capacity.

Ginny exited the changing room last, after the training, and immediately Harry waved her over. He was standing around a table with Stacey, Vicky, Alex and Maggie, bent over a map that was covered in different coloured circles.

“The circles show the areas that each major drug gang generally operates,” Vicky said to the group, her tone implying that she understood the matter well. “Alex got it from Reggie Tate’s drug specialists. We thought that if we added on the address and workplace of each victim along with the type of potion that killed them we’d get some sort of idea of the gang that is causing the deaths and then we’d know where to focus.” Harry nodded, his eyes scanning the map.

“That sounds good. Get each group to add their details onto it. I want it to be as fully informed as possible before we start properly investigating. Feed back to me once you’ve got some idea of what the actual cause is. Ginny, you help the team here. You guys, make sure Ginny knows how to work with this sort of map, the spells and that. I dunno if they do it in the Academy. I’ve got to go to a meeting at the Ministry but I’ll catch up with you all after lunch. I’ll probably be back at one,” he informed them, before waving goodbye and disappearing into his office. Ginny ignored the small pang in her chest. She felt more comfortable around Harry than anyone else. This was the first time Ginny had properly been without Harry since she’d started at the Aurors and she hadn’t properly spoken to everyone yet. 

“We did a bit about maps at the Academy,” Ginny told them with a smile. “Anything I don’t know I’m sure I’ll pick up.”

“Okay then, Ginny, do you wanna read the addresses from the list and then Stacey can tell us the cause and we’ll get this map sorted?” Vicky suggested.

XXX

“I’m just saying, sir, it’s unrealistic!”

Robards sighed. “I know, Potter, but this is what we’ve wanted for so long, what we’ve needed. They’ve never even considered it before. It’s the first step. Yes, you’ll be out of the office one day a week-”

“And so will every team leader! I understand that we’ll have it on different days, so it won’t be that we’re taking every leader out of the office at once, but it’s not the point! We’ve how many teams here? Forty? Whatever it is, a good chunk of that will be out of the office. They’re the most experienced people we have here!”

“Potter, there are always people out of the office and it’s only for six months. We’ll adapt. We need this healing training, you know that. You’ve campaigned for it the most out of any of us.”

“I campaigned for some healers joining us, not us becoming healers!” Harry yelled. Robards took off his glasses and began to clean them.

“Potter, this is just how things have to be now. I need you to go and draw up a list of others you want to be six month-trained and who you want to be two year-trained. I need at least twenty fully trained and I want twenty non-leaders to be six-month trained. They need to be committed-”

“I know. I’ll go and do it now,” Harry said, his mouth a grim line as he left his office.

Robards was right. He knew that. For years, they’d been campaigning for healers to join their office. It just wasn’t realistic for aurors to always have to go to St Mungos or the small doctors surgeries set up across the country when they needed a bit of help. It made more sense to train a healer up in basic auror skills and have them in the office. Now that the Ministry had finally given it some thought, they’d said that the aurors themselves should be trained. Harry agreed, of course he did. It made sense, but it meant a lot of the workforce leaving the office, leaving their missions. It meant that the quality of service that they gave would be lower.

He sighed, re entering his own office and sitting down at his desk wearily. Taking a piece of parchment and a quill, he opened the pot of ink and made a list of leaders. In his opinion that would be enough, but Robards wanted forty more. All in the name of health and safety, of course. He’d finish it tonight and give it to Robards in the morning. Right now, he wanted an update on the case.

“Mags, how’re things looking?” he called as he left his office and the paperwork behind. All twelve members of his team stood around the enlarged map.

“Trying to look for connections, Harry,” she replied, looking at the map in frustration. “The majority of the deaths are caused by mixing caffeine with ARP,” she told them. The room shared a collective wince. ARP was one of the most volatile ingredients known to wizards and there was a whole plethora of ingredients that it couldn’t be mixed with. Caffeine was perhaps the most dangerous, because it didn’t cause the potion to explode. Nobody would be able to tell they were mixed together until they had drunk it, at which point they would suffer an embolism. A truly awful way to die.

Harry rubbed his hand across his face. “Are we suspecting East London then? They’ve always been known to be a bit creative with ARP.”

Kenneth, Harry’s second-in-command, shook his head. “We don’t know, Harry. That was obviously our first thought, but all but one of the deaths are in other gang’s areas. We’ve plotted workplaces as well and there’s still very little correlation, especially because quite a few of them didn’t even have jobs.”

“It just doesn’t seem like any of the other gangs,” Lewis added frustratedly.

Stacey pursed her lips. “I still think we could make a case for Dynamite.”

“Go on, Stace,” Harry encouraged. Stacey sent him a beaming grin and Harry got that uncomfortable almost cringing feeling in his stomach as he did so often around Stacey.

Stacey cleared her throat, “Dynamite is the only gang that covers the entirety of London and, although they’re generally considered to be the most sensible, the most safe gang in London, they are still a gang and there are so many cases that we’ve tried to connect to them that they’ve dodged.”

“But why would they?” Vicky questioned tiredly, as though they’d had this conversation a million times before. Harry knew that when Stacey got something in her head, she generally ran with it. She was a very good investigative auror and her hunches generally did lead somewhere.

“There could have been a change in leadership, or new members, or even a new mindset. They’ve been quiet recently. We don’t know what has been going on.” Sensing the tension between them, Harry called a halt to the discussion and turned to Simon.

“Did we get anything from Knockturn Alley yesterday?”

Nodding, the older auror explained their discussions in detail and Harry, as usual, gave the man respect for his attention to detail. Simon was such an asset to the team. Often he would pick up on the small details that others would miss. Harry could not recall the amount of times that it had helped them make a break on a case. His retirement would be a huge loss. Harry had never come across anybody like him.

“There was one other thing, boss,” Simon continued, turning to a different sheet of paper and holding it up. Harry furrowed his brow. “We went into the Knockturn Alley apothecary, when the other team had told us about the ARP and asked some questions. They told us about a few characters that they hadn’t seen before coming in and buying it. At any other store, of course, you need a licence to buy it,” Harry smiled wryly. He was sure that Knockturn Alley would always be lax in some areas, no matter how many times the aurors put in restrictions and spot checks. “Anyway, after some encouragement, the woman on the counter admitted that she thought there may be a new gang trying to get their foot in in London. I don’t know how much to believe, but it’s worth looking into.”

“Definitely. Thanks, Si,” Harry said appreciatively. Simon inclined his head. “Right, ask around. Mags, take a couple of people with Witness Care training and go and interview the families of the deceased. Find out if they knew what gang they used, if they even knew they took drugs, if they took regular trips somewhere, if they had any new friends, any weird things going on.” Maggie nodded firmly and gestured to Alex and Ruby to follow her. “Cameron, I want to know what the potion is called. I want to know how many people use it, how common it is, how new it is. I want to know if it’s a new potion or if it’s a variation. Take Chloe, Lewis and Stacey and go and ask around the usual places.” The mentioned people filed out of the room into one of the smaller planning rooms to plan their approaches. “Vicky-”

“I’m going to forensics, boss. One of the victims was found with the bottle.”

“Excellent. Take Ginny,” he ordered and Vicky nodded. She met eyes with Ginny and the two left. Harry swallowed.

“Si, Lewis, can you nip next door and help on the double homicide? Ben had to call in sick, so can you go and help Izzy, Julian and Delilah?” the older men acquiesced to their boss and went to help out the other sub-team.

“Ken, I need you to-”

“Paperwork, I’m on it boss,” his second said with a salute. Harry grinned in thanks.

“Robin, last but most certainly not least. You are going to a witness care training session. It’s your second year now, so you’ll be going every Tuesday from 11 til 5,” Harry told her with a smile. Robin nodded. “Go to Anna’s office, I think you’re all meeting there.”

“Sure boss. I’ll probably see you tomorrow then?” 

Harry inclined his head and returned to his office. The next month’s day and night schedules wouldn’t write themselves.

XXX

“As an auror, I find it is my duty to tell you that it is illegal to do that in the clear view of muggles.” Harry turned to see Ginny standing in the doorframe to the communal living area. He put down his wand which had been pointed at the ceiling, creating sparks.

“There’s a ward up,” he informed her, sitting up from his lying position and patting the cushion next to him. Ginny smiled and jumped over the back of the sofa rather than walking around. Harry watched, amused.

“Any particular reason you’re lying on the couch waving your wand in the air?” Ginny questioned, her tone bright and her face in a smile, putting her feet up on the table between the sofa and the television, which muttered the news lightly in the background. 

“Yes,” Harry told her. “I’m trying to come up with something that is a good enough excuse for me to not do the paperwork I need to do.”

Ginny laughed. “And they made you Deputy Chief Commissioner why now?”

Harry barked a laugh. He had asked himself that question many times. “I need to make a list of people to send to do healer training and I need to sort out the schedule for the next month.” Ginny nodded, quirking one eyebrow at the sheets that were strewn across the table and floor. “I just can’t be arsed with night shifts and surveillance shifts and quidditch matches, etcetera.”

“Do you not do it all the time?” Ginny asked curiously.

“Nah, we do it in month rotations. So I’ll do this month and then it’ll be a good few months before I need to look at a bleeding schedule again,” Harry groused to Ginny’s laughter, shaking a few pages at her.

She quietened down and grabbed the remote. “Tuesday night, probably no Quidditch then?” she said, glancing sideways at him. 

“Alas, no,” Harry sighed in faux despair. “There might be some football on though,” he commented lightly, aware that he was likely to get a bad reaction to that.

And, he was right. Ginny scoffed. “Bollocks to football. What sort of witch do you take me for?”

Harry snatched the remote from her hand and tutted at her. “I tell you what, Auror Weasley, I wouldn’t have taken you for a racist.”

Ginny harrumphed. “A racist? Me? A racist? How so, Potter?”

Harry smirked at her. “Well, why don’t you want to watch football? Because it’s muggle? Have you ever even seen a game of football?”

“One, because it’s not quidditch. Two, no and, three, no,” she admitted, the last a bit sheepishly. Harry rolled his eyes and turned the channel to a football match between Manchester United and West Bromwich Albion. He grinned at her.

“Get ready to be inducted into the world of football.”

XXX

Paperwork lay abandoned on the side and a beer sat in each of their hands. “Okay, I think I get it now. I’ll probably need some clarification next time, but, for now, I get it,” Ginny said finally, after about ten explanations of the offside rule.

“So you like it?”

“I didn’t say that,” Ginny replied. Harry rolled his eyes.

“You’re so bloody stubborn, witch.”

Ginny laughed. “I have been told that many times before.” Harry laughed. He could imagine so. United, Harry’s own team, had won the match three to nil. He followed football almost as closely as he followed quidditch and United were the Puddlemere of football for him.

“There’s a big match Saturday afternoon, if you fancy it. Some big charity thing,” he explained with a downturn of his lips. He didn’t want to pressure her into coming and it certainly was not a date. They could spend time together as friends couldn’t they? That was all he wanted. A friend. Sirius and that lot were always telling him he didn’t have enough friends his own age.

Ginny grinned wickedly. “Count me in.” Harry grinned back at her, meeting her eyes for just a moment too long. He swallowed and looked away, anywhere but into her beautiful chocolate eyes. Looking around the room, his eyes stopped at the paperwork and he swore.

“Fuck, I need to do this still.”

Ginny rolled her eyes, taking another sip of the beer Harry had provided her with. “Sounds like a you problem.”

“As your boss,” Harry started teasingly, “I could very easily make this a you problem.” Ginny arched an eyebrow at him.

“Not outside of office hours you couldn’t.” Her face was dead set, not even a twitch of a smile, but he thought she was amenable to help him. She pursed her lips as his eyes traced her face. His lips unfolded into a smirk and he threw a file at her.

“Go through that and decide who you think looks like a healer,” he ordered her and she scoffed in disbelief. “Come on, Ginny, all I’m asking you to do is look at some pictures and tell me who you think should train in healing. It’ll be fun,” he promised her, looking at her deeply. She held his gaze for a second or two before rolling her eyes and opening the file.

Harry took out a notepad and pen. Ginny gave him a look of surprise at the muggle writing equipment. “I was raised as a muggle,” he explained to her, “I’ve always found it easier to use these than parchment, quill and ink. I have to at work, of course, but if it’s just notes, I don’t see the point.”

Ginny shrugged and began to look at the faces in the file that Harry had given her, while he turned to the schedules. “Shouldn’t you be going on their personalities or skills rather than their looks?” Ginny asked passively. Harry chuckled and shrugged.

“Nah, we just need a load of healers, so I don’t really care. Everyone is gonna go to a few seminars and stuff, so it doesn’t really make a difference,” he explained to her and she shrugged again, turning back to the file.

XXX

Ginny giggled hysterically. They’d been through three more beers each and were getting to the end of the file. Harry had finished the schedules after their second beer and since, they’d been drawing funny pictures on top of each person’s picture in the file. Harry had just added a curly moustache and huge glasses on Bonnie Figueroa’s face. Even though Ginny didn’t really know the majority of the people in the file yet, everything Harry was doing was funny. She supposed that the alcohol was helping.

“Oh, add some Shrek ears,” Ginny giggled over Harry’s shoulder as he moved onto Julian Sims. Harry chuckled appreciatively. She had no idea when they’d got so close, but Harry’s chuckles vibrated her body. She was leaning on him, trying to get as close to the file as possible. “She looks like a healer,” Ginny said, pointing drunkenly at Laura Campbell.

Harry scoffed. “Laurie?” he almost giggled, setting Ginny off again. When their giggles died down, Ginny furrowed her brow at his nickname.

“Laurie?” she asked, pulling away from him. “How well do you know her, hey, Potter?” she queried, trying to raise her eyebrows suspiciously and shoving his shoulder.

He whispered something in her ear and then pulled back, his eyes narrowed and a smirk on his face. He looked incredibly sexy and his mouth next to her ear had sent feelings flooding through her body. She continued to stare at him, considering how he was affecting her. “Hmm?”

“What?” she blurted and Harry chuckled, getting closer to her again.

“I asked,” he whispered, “if you were jealous.” Ginny scoffed and shoved him again.

“Me, Potter? Jealous? Because of you?” She laughed raucously for as long as she possibly could.

“I’m gonna take that as a yes,” he hissed. The file dropped to the floor, knocking over a couple of empty bottles of beer.

Ginny huffed and folded her arms, pulling away from him. Furrowing his brow and sitting up, Harry looked at her curiously. His face was hilarious and Ginny burst out with giggles. “What are you laughing at, Weasley?”

“Your face,” she giggled.

Harry harrumphed and then said, “I’ll give you something to giggle at.” Surprising Ginny entirely, he began to tickle her. His hands were all over her body and the laughter coming out of Ginny’s mouth was high pitched and long-lasting.

“Stop!” she screamed, trying to kick him off her. She fidgeted a lot, trying to get him off her. He was making her laugh so much that tears were flowing from her eyes. When Harry noticed this, he stopped immediately.

“Ginny, oh my God, I’m so sorry,” he said, pulling away from her. Ginny looked at him in confusion.

“What?”

“You’re crying,” he said, poking her cheek. Ginny giggled.

“With laughter, you silly man.”

“Oh.”

The room was silent but for the TV that they’d not given any attention to since the two of them had been in there. Ginny bit her lip. She knew what she wanted to do. If she was sober, she wouldn’t. Well, she didn’t think she would. But, hey, that was doubt! A grin unfurled on her face. Doubt was all she needed.

She turned to Harry and found him staring at her. “Gin-”

He didn’t say anything else before Ginny had straddled him and had covered his lips with her own.

XXX

Hands roaming, lips mashing, Harry knew it was wrong. In the back of his mind, he knew that he was her boss and she was his employee and this was not allowed. There was no doubt about it, but he didn’t care. He wanted this and evidently so did she. His arms tightened around her and her hands grasped at his hair. “Ginny,” he gasped.

“No, Harry, don’t stop,” she said, moving her mouth to his neck. Harry scoffed, chuckling, and then pushed her off him. She fell, lying down on the sofa. She groaned loudly. “Come on,” she encouraged.

He grinned, standing up, and lifted her up bridal style. “I want to have you in my bed,” he hissed in her ear. Her smile matched his own, mischievous as could be. She pressed an open-mouthed kiss onto his jawline and he waggled his eyebrows down at her. They reached the lift and Ginny called it with the button.

The lift arrived and they were kissing, struggling in the position they were in, Harry straining his neck down to her. It was worth it. Even if this was just one more night, it was worth it. She was worth it.

Harry walked her into the lift, using her foot to click the top button, to Ginny’s laughter. He loved the sound of her laugh. He let her slide down his body so that he wasn’t holding her anymore. Instead, he had her pinned against the metal wall. “I want you,” Ginny whispered and Harry wasn’t sure if she meant for him to hear it but he did and - Merlin he wanted her too. He held his hand up and the lift stopped.

“Was that wandless-”

“Yeah.” He pulled her up, her pupils almost entirely black. “Does that turn you on, Gin?” he asked, waving his hand again and banishing all of her clothes to his bedroom. She gasped in shock. Putting his hand between her legs, he stroked her and smirked. “I think I have my answer.”

“Harry,” she gasped out. “Don’t stop.”

“I don’t intend to, Gin. I don’t intend to ever stop.”

XXX


	4. Chapter 4

Over the next few days, work progressed as smoothly as possible. He’d had a meeting with Gawain, Kingsley and Amelia on Thursday morning, to catch them up with the details of the case. They had praised Harry’s team for their progress so far, which had pleased Harry. The team had had a meeting on Friday morning to discuss where they thought they were up to and they all agreed that they could rule out all of the other gangs in London - that it was this new group that they knew nothing of that was causing the deaths from what they assumed was a potion, rather than any other type of drug or narcotic.

Everything was normal at work. Everything was perfect at work. In fact, things were going so well that it made Harry want to punch something. At least if he had things to worry about at work, he wouldn’t be thinking about Ginny all the time.

And it was all the time.

He couldn’t escape his thoughts of her. It was obsessive. He had never been like this over anything nor anyone. It was like his mind had forgotten that there were other things in the world, that the world was actually an interesting place and he could be thinking about how aeroplanes stay in the air or what the function of a rubber duck was - but all he could think of was Ginny.

And it was his own fault. Sleeping with her once had been bad enough - and so bloody brilliant that sometimes he forgot that it was a bad thing to sleep with one’s employee - but to do it a second time was like asking for this obsession. The second time, they had been drunk, yes, slightly. They’d been happy and laughing and ever so slightly drunk. And they’d been slow and loving and kissing and it had been so much more than sex.

Harry could remember everything, the way she looked, the way she had felt, the way she had tasted, the way she had smelled. It was like torture. It was actually torturing him and he wanted to be with her all the time. And not just to see her, to actually spend time with her, to hear her thoughts on anything and everything and to watch her laugh. Merlin, Harry loved her laugh.

Shaking himself, Harry turned back to his paperwork, his job. It was progressing smoothly and everything was great but this part - the paperwork - was so boring. And, so, his mind was using his boredom to focus on Ginny Ginny Ginny.

There was a knock on his door into the HPHPHP area. Harry looked up from the patrol schedules, observing the clock above his door which read seven o’ clock. When had that happened? “Come in!” Harry shouted. It was Stacey at the door. She reached up to push her hair back from her face. Harry gave her a smile, grateful for the distraction. “You okay, Stace?”

She nodded with a returned smile. “We’re gonna go to the Chimera, if you fancy it, boss?”

Harry grinned. If it was a Friday night, and they weren’t working the weekend (which was about once a month), the whole team would normally go out for a few drinks. And, usually, the younger lot would end up at some clubs on Crystal Trail, a magical clubbing street in Manchester. It was very popular with people from all over the world, especially at the weekend. “Yeah, give me ten mins and I’ll join you.”

“Perfect, see you in a few,” she replied with a wink, swinging her hair as she closed the door behind her.

XXX

“Hey, it’s Harry!” Alex shouted, a bit too loudly for Ginny’s liking. Alex was a lovely guy - but loud. Ginny looked up from her vodka and pumpkin juice to see Harry approaching. She’d not spent very much time with him over the past few days, because of their lapse on Tuesday night. She was determined not to make the same mistake again. When she’d thought of going down to the common room to relax - or to sleep - she’d stopped herself with the thought that sleeping with Harry could ruin both of their careers and, as good as it was, it was not worth it.

“Hey guys,” Harry greeted, ruffling his own hair and taking a seat next to Maggie around the table. His smile was small but she could see his teeth. He was so cute. “No Vicky?” he asked, naming the only member of HPHPHP who hadn’t joined them. They all shook their heads with a shrug. Vicky had said that she had to get home. She’d looked very tired.

“Ten minutes my arse, Harry!” Stacey called. “It’s been at least half an hour.”

Harry grimaced and Ginny wondered how much he knew of Stacey’s feelings for him. “Sorry, Stace, got caught up a bit with patrol schedules.” The entire team groaned and Harry seemed to agree. Ginny hadn’t experienced a patrol yet. From what she understood, teams worked a week of patrols every month, either on Diagon Alley, at Hogwarts or Hogsmeade. They also patrolled quidditch games or other big events, including Hogsmeade weekends. “Anyway, I’m gonna get a drink. Won’t be two ticks,” Harry told them, jumping up and grinning at them.

“So, how have you found your first week, Ginny?” Simon asked her. He was a lovely man, who’d been working at the auror office for 38 years. He was now 58 and finally retiring. He’d worked through both of Voldemort’s reigns and had finally experienced the auror office in a state of organisation and clarity. He said that that was all he’d ever wanted.

“It’s been great,” Ginny confessed. She’d loved every moment. Yes, it was hard work but she’d expected that. She got along with every team member and felt that she’d been put into an amazing group. “I didn’t think I’d be enjoying it so much.”

Simon grinned. “It is amazing. Hard work, mind, but amazing.”

Harry returned a few minutes later and sat back down. The conversation moved to him and it was clear how every member of the team revered him. Ginny took the opportunity to review her surroundings. She’d never even heard of the Chimera. It was a magical pub in Liverpool that the aurors favoured. They were definitely not the only team of aurors there. When they’d arrived, Cameron Woods had informed Ginny that, if you weren’t working at the weekend, you came to the Chimera on a Friday night and, if you weren’t working Sunday, you came on a Saturday after work. Essentially, if they weren’t working the next day, they would come to the Chimera. Ginny did not have a problem with that at all.

They chatted for ages. Time flew by. Ginny found out all about the people she worked with, who was married, who had kids, who was a lightweight. After two drinks, Robin was talking about what her boyfriend was like in bed. After three drinks, Alex was gushing about how much his loved his wife. After four, Ruby was telling them how much she hated Shelly Cruz from HPBNIW, much to the team’s agreement. Having never met her, Ginny didn’t want to make any judgement, but she had a feeling she wouldn’t like her either. 

Five drinks in and Ginny was smashed. Completely and utterly smashed. More drunk than she’d been the other night when she’d shagged Harry. “So, Ginny,” Ruby giggled, “you’ve not told us! What’s your deal? You got a boyfriend? Girlfriend?”

Ginny giggled herself. “No!” she said and realised immediately that she had been quite loud. Biting her lip, she looked around herself to see who had noticed. She find Harry’s eyes on her. She tucked her hair behind her ear. “I was seeing Dean when I started at the Academy. He was my brother’s best friend, but he couldn’t stand the thought of me working for the aurors,” Ginny rolled her eyes. “He wasn’t that interesting anyway. I had a thing with a guy who worked at the bar near the Academy for a while, but it wasn’t about anything but the sex,” she whispered, unsure of how well that worked. “He was incredible though,” Ginny confessed loudly, before downing the rest of her drink. She wondered if Harry was still looking at her.

“The best you’ve ever had?” Robin questioned with a waggle of her eyebrows. Ginny bit her lip and threw her head back, staring at the ceiling. “What are you doing?” she giggled. Ginny rolled her head back forward and found Harry’s piercing eyes still on her.

“I’m thinking!”

She couldn’t deal with Harry trying to hide his smirk. “Come on, Ginny,” she heard him say, “surely it’s not that difficult.” She could hear the smugness in his voice.

“Well, the thing is, I’ve been with some guys who thought a bit too much of themselves, if you know what I mean.”

Robin laughed raucously. “I know exactly what you mean, Ginny. Guys who think they’re all that and actually don’t have that much going for them,” she said with a purposeful look at her crotch. Ginny giggled uncontrollably.

“Exactly, Robin! The last guy I was with was just like that,” Ginny said with a sad shake of her head. Harry narrowed his eyes at her.

“Shall we go to Aparecium?” he interrupted before Ginny could continue slagging him off. Ginny grinned, waggling her brows at him. He shook his head at her.

XXX

The team apparated to Manchester. They’d been slimmed slightly, leaving just Ginny, Robin, Chloe, Stacey, Ruby, Alex and Harry for the clubs. It was the usual group who actually hit the clubs. They never intended on going to clubs when they set out for the night, but after drinks at the Chimera, they were always up for Aparecium, their favourite club.

The queue for the club was rather large. “Come on, Harry, you know they’ll let us in if they see you,” Ruby pleaded. “You’ve done it before!”

Harry laughed. He had done it before, just the once, but then everyone knew he was inside and he’d had a shit night if he was honest. He couldn’t be arsed with that tonight, not on his first night out with Ginny. Not that that mattered. Not that she particularly mattered. He shook himself. He’d only had four drinks but he was just as drunk as he’d been on Tuesday night with Ginny.

“Nah, Rubes,” he said, slinging an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s queue up like the rest of the rabble.” Ruby giggled and wrapped an arm around his waist. They walked along, talking about everything and nothing. Ruby was one of his favourites among the team. Harry could hear Ginny talking to Alex behind them.

Stop.

Harry could hear Stacey talking to Chloe and Robin behind them. And Ginny talking to Alex. Maybe drinking with her wasn’t the best idea, but it was too late now.

Standing in queues for clubs wasn’t the most interesting part of the night, but Harry didn’t necessarily mind it, especially when it wasn’t absolutely freezing. It meant that he got a chance to chat with his friends for that bit longer. He was listening to Alex describe a particularly interesting position his girlfriend had got into last night when Ginny moved rather suddenly. The whole team looked at her confused.

“What the fuck are you doing, Weasley?” Harry slurred, observing her hiding behind Alex.

“My brothers have just walked past,” she said, swearing directly afterwards. “They’re so embarrassing. Do not let them see me!” she ordered. Harry smirked at her and lifted his hands to his mouth, about to shout somebody’s name. Ginny punched him in the stomach, much to his amusement.

“I’m joking, Weasley,” he chortled. “Although, attacking your superiors, not a joke.” He wagged a finger in her face.

“Get your finger out of my face, Potter, and help me stay hidden if you want a decent night. Those twats will completely ruin this if they see me,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“It’s okay, Weasley, we’ll protect you,” Alex joked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

Jealousy flared through Harry’s body. He wanted to punch Alex in the face. Alex had a wife and it was just a friendly gesture, but he glared daggers at Alex’s arm nonetheless. 

Finally, they reached the front of the queue. They showed their apparition licences and then paid a galleon each. Stamps firmly on their hands, they entered their favourite club. It played muggle and magical music. As they entered, I Don’t Feel Like Dancing was playing. Harry grinned and glanced at Ginny, who was practically screeching about how this was her father’s favourite song. She was so pretty.

“Come on,” Robin enticed, “Let’s dance!”

XXX

Ginny loved going out and dancing. It was one of her favourite parts of the Academy, her prolific nightlife. She particularly loved Aparecium’s music. The song playing at the moment was Sk8er Boi, one of her favourites. Holding her hands out to the right lyrics, she shook her arse like no one was watching, loving the feel of the alcohol coursing through her body. She danced with everyone. Robin grinded against her as though they were together, making Ginny giggle and squeal. Stacey kept reaching over and grabbing her tit to Ginny’s surprise and delight. Alex span her around and around until she was too dizzy to stand.

Harry, however, stood away from her at all times. Every so often, she’d look up and see him dancing with Robin or Alex or Ruby. Sometimes, she’d see him with Stacey and anger would course through her veins and the sight of Stacey’s face, happy and infatuated. It made Ginny see red.

“What the hell? Ginny?”

Well fuck. She knew that voice. Behind her stood Bill, her eldest brother. “Bill!” she cried drunkenly, wrapping her arms around his neck. Her other brothers swiftly followed.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Ginny?” Bill asked angrily and Ginny scoffed. Robin came and slung her arm over Ginny’s shoulders.

“Excuse me, I do not know who the fuck you are,” Robin slurred, “but this is an Aurors’ night out only and we do not appreciate your presence.” Ginny giggled madly at the look on her brothers’ faces.

“You heard the lady,” Ginny informed them, shoving Bill in the chest. “You are not welcome.”

Charlie looked at her disapprovingly. “You’re drunk.”

“And you, Charles, are boring me! Come on, Robin, let’s go back to some fun people,” Ginny announced, wrapping an arm around Robin’s waist and striding off towards where Harry and the rest of the team had moved to. Her brothers didn’t follow, thankfully. Annoying gits.

When they found their friends again, Ginny saw that Stacey had her arms around Harry’s neck and was dancing far too close to him. Fury swelled in her stomach. Why wasn’t Harry pushing her off him? Why was he letting her dance so close to him? She was practically grinding against him. Did he like her? Maybe they were going out secretly. Maybe he’d cheated on her with Ginny. 

“I’m going to the toilet!” Ginny shouted and stormed off, pushing past people on her way to the toilets. She couldn’t stand looking at that- that whore for one more second. She reached the toilets and sat on the ledge that ran along the wall between the men’s and women’s loos. Thankfully, no one had followed her, so she didn’t have to explain that she’d run off because she was jealous of one of her co-workers grinding against her boss, who she happened to have shagged quite a few times, despite only having started work on Monday.

She considered going home. The night had been awesome and she was having so much fun, but she’d catch Harry’s eye in the corner of hers and her heart would ache. She was quite aware that her attraction to him wasn’t just about the sex. It was everything. He was awesome. He made her smile. He was so powerful and confident and fun and he cared about everyone. Harry was everything she had ever wanted and Fate had cursed her with him as a boss.

However, Ginny Weasley was not a coward. Men did not control her life. She was going to continue having an amazing night, no matter how much she wanted to be spending it with Harry. Despite her resolve, Ginny continued to sit on the bench for a few more minutes, until she had fully steeled herself to go back and cope with her stupid feelings.

“Gin?”

Oh bloody hell. Harry coming over had not been part of the plan. Ginny forced a smile onto her face and turned to him. “Harry?” she said, “what are you doing here?”

Harry reached out a hand to her and pulled her up from the bench, putting his mouth by her ear so that she could actually hear him. “I came to find you,” he told her, “I was worried.” His lips were too close to her ear. Those stupid lips that could do such magical things. They sent shocks through her body. She would happily have those lips anywhere on her body, following the shivers he was sending through her. “Are you okay?” he asked, looking deep into her eyes.

With him looking at her like that, Ginny just wanted to kiss him. His eyes were incredible, the brightest colour of green she’d ever seen. “Gin?” he prompted.

“Sorry, I was busy falling into your eyes,” she giggled into his ear. Harry’s grin warmed her insides. He wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Caught you,” he whispered and Ginny laughed, leaning her head against his shoulder. When she felt the press of his lips against her neck, her breath caught.

“Harry,” she warned.

“Let me have you again,” he said into her ear and her heart broke. There was nothing she wanted more. “Let me have you, Ginny,” he implored and Ginny shook her head, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“We can’t,” she said against his chest.

“What?” he said, clearly unable to hear her. Ginny shook her head. She heard him sigh. She felt it.

His fingers tickled the underneath of her chin and she giggled, looking up at him. He was the perfect height in her opinion, taller than her by quite a bit but not by as much as Ron or Bill. Fuck it, she was drunk.

Their lips were crashing together before they knew what was happening. He was an excellent kisser, the best she’d ever had. Hips ground together, mirroring the actions of their lips. He backed her into the wall and pinned her against it. “Harry.” She pulled away desperately. They would regret this in the morning. “No, Harry, we can’t.”

“I know,” he said emphatically. “But I want to more than anything in the world, Ginny,” he hissed into her ear. She knew. By the word, she knew. She could feel him against her leg, hard and pulsing. The same feeling was shooting around her body. She pulled out of his arms and gave him a sad smile, pressing a kiss against his stubbled cheek and leaving it there for a few seconds. He sighed.

She left.

XXX

“I dunno, mate,” Harry protested as he exited the gym with Dave Jennings, Sam Allen and Owen James, his best friends within the unit.

“Come on, Harry. Vera would love to see you,” Dave implored.

“Okay, so it’ll be you and Vera, Sam and Jackie, Owen and Rachel, Naomi and Frankie, Anna and Mike, and then just me. On my own,” Harry told them with a roll of his eyes.

“Then bring a date!” Owen suggested. Rolling his eyes was far too common a habit when he was around his mates. A date. Harry snorted.

They reached the gym door. “Come on, you’re Harry Potter. Any girl in the world would want to go with you,” Sam said with a roll of his eyes.

“Nah but I don’t want a fangirl,” Harry stated for what felt like the millionth time.

“Oh but they’d be oh so grateful in the sack,” Owen said with a waggle of his eyebrows. Harry rolled his eyes.

“Non-fangirls are rather decent as well,” Harry said, smiling slightly at the thought of Ginny.

The three men shared a look. “Oh are they indeed? Is this something to do with Sunday night, Potter?” Dave asked curiously. Harry grinned at them.

“Maybe.”

“Well, invite this non-fangirl!” Dave encouraged. Harry’s smirk slipped off his face. He’d never be able to invite Ginny to that sort of thing because he’d never be able to be with Ginny. Not in the way Naomi and Frankie, both heads of departments, could be. “Ey up, did she bin you off after you shagged her? Are you really that shit in bed?”

Harry punched Dave in the arm. “Fuck off,” he laughed. “Nah, it just would never work between us, you know?”

“Too different?” Sam said.

Harry thought about it. He and Ginny really weren’t too different at all. Of course, there were differences between them, but they both loved the same things. They were actually rather well suited to each other, but other things got in the way.

“Something like that,” Harry muttered, ignoring the look that the other guys were giving him.

“Well, I don’t care if you bring no one. You’re coming on Tuesday night,” Dave declared. Harry sighed.

XXX

Returning to the flat, Harry jumped into the shower. The gym had done a lot to get rid of his hangover, but nothing to make him stop remembering his conversation with Ginny outside the loos in Aparecium last night. She’d been the sensible one in the situation and Harry berated himself for that. He was her boss; he needed to be the sensible one.

But, Merlin, she stopped him being sensible. Generally, he was a sensible man. It was what got him so far with the Aurors. It was why he hadn’t had sex in months - because he thought about it before he did it. And there would be nothing more embarrassing than an interview in the Daily Prophet from a girl he’d shagged. He just never knew what she’d say. So, he didn’t shag anyone he didn’t trust. No one magical anyway.

Except Ginny.

He’d not thought twice before shagging her on Sunday night. It hadn’t even crossed his mind to do the sensible thing and say no. If he had, his life would be about a million times easier now. But it wasn’t. And he didn’t rightly care.

That shag had been the best of his life. And with someone that he got along with so well. She was so perfect. Perfect in general, but also perfect for him.

Harry shook his head, turning the shower off. He had no idea what he was going to do. What he wanted to do was more clear. He wanted to say fuck it to all the rules and get together with Ginny. But he couldn’t. Of course he couldn’t.

“Harry!” he heard a voice scream as he entered his living room, dressed only in a pair of jeans.

“Oof,” burst out of him as a small child jumped up onto him. “Hey, Cady,” Harry said, looking over his goddaughter’s shoulder at his godfather and his wife, each carrying a child.

Another child had latched onto his leg and Harry joked around trying to move while Magnus giggled wildly. Acadia laughed with her hands running her hands through Harry’s messy hair. “You alright, pup?” Sirius asked with a smirk. Harry chuckled and sat down on his sofa, Acadia settling on his lap and Magnus crawling up to sit next to him.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” Harry asked, nodding along to whatever Acadia was saying. Amelia came over to sit down next to Harry, their newborn baby Persephone in her arms.

Sirius sat down on his other side and Harry smiled oddly, looking between the two. “We just wanted to check on you, make sure you weren’t spending your weekend all alone,” Sirius told him. Harry rolled his eyes.

“I only got up at midday, ate and then went to the gym with some guys from work. Then, I got home, had a shower and here I am,” Harry told them dryly.

“Topless,” Amelia added with a smirk.

“Yes, well, if I’d had some sort of warning, I would’ve put a top on,” Harry said with a pointed look, trying to pull his face away as Acadia poked it. Amelia rolled her eyes at him.

“Not bring anyone home last night then?” she asked curiously. Sirius looked at him with his eyebrows raised and Harry leaned back against the sofa.

“No,” he said definitively. Maybe he should confide in them about Ginny. If anyone could help, they could. But it had only been a week. Crushes didn’t go away in a week. And that was all this was. A crush.

“Cady, get off Harry and let him hold your sister,” Amelia instructed and Acadia complied immediately with a pout. She still sat as closely to him as possible, but allowed him to hold her black-haired sister. Persephone was ten weeks old and she was beautiful. She was the spitting image of Sirius, with lovely black hair and piercing grey eyes.

“Where’s Romy?” Harry asked, querying their missing child.

“She’s at Lucy’s.”

Amelia stood and moved to the kitchen, opening and closing all of the cupboards.

“Amelia,” Harry protested.

“I’m gonna make some food,” she told him. “What did you have for lunch?”

“I was just about to make it before you busy bodies arrived.”

“Harry, it’s four in the afternoon!” Harry’s mouth dropped. Was it really that late? The charity football game started in half an hour. He wondered if Ginny would join him like she’d hinted she would. “What? What time did you think it was?” Amelia asked with a laugh and a smirk.

“No, I just- there’s a football match on this afternoon,” he told them with a crooked smile. His godfather and his wife laughed at him. Harry rolled his eyes at the baby in his arms. “Always get mocked I do, Seffie.”

“Good idea, Potter. Get the baby on your side,” Sirius teased. “What football game is it?”

“Some charity thing,” Harry said distractedly. “I was gonna watch it downstairs.”

“Are you saying we’re not invited?” Amelia said, faux-hurt. Harry rolled his eyes and tickled Persephone’s stomach.

“Come if you want, but I know for a fact you hate football, Amelia,” Harry said with raised eyebrows, only to be ignored. Amelia finally located the bread and ham and began to make Harry a sandwich. Sometimes she forgot that Harry wasn’t a child.

XXX

Ginny had spent her day sat in the common room, as she often did, not having any sort of chair or bed in her flat. When she wasn’t in the common room, she was leaning against a piece of wall in her flat, going over the auror handbook or reading some other sort of book. It wasn’t like she had anything else to do.

“What you watching?” she heard from behind her. Unwarranted, her heart skipped a beat. Containing a sigh of discontent at her heart’s reaction, Ginny turned and gave Harry a small smile.

“News,” she replied simply, her stomach doing a funny sort of flip as he took a seat next to her. “Not very interesting. I didn’t know what channel the football game was on,” she said, trying with everything she had to diminish the awkwardness in the room. He gave her a smile and took the remote control, turning it to channel one.

“It starts in a few minutes,” Harry told her. Ginny didn’t look at him, only at the three men on the screen who were discussing the non-professionals who would be playing in the football match.

It took two minutes for both aurors to decide that they couldn’t deal with the awkwardness. “Look, Harry,” Ginny started and the moment that Harry began, “Ginny, I just-”

“You go,” Ginny encouraged, eager to know what it was that Harry thought of the situation.

“I just wanted to apologise,” he sighed. “It should have been me stopping us last night. I should never have started it and I don’t want to blame my drunken state. That’s not fair to you because you were drunk as well. I’m your boss and I shouldn’t have kissed you in a bar where anyone could see. I shouldn’t have kissed you at all,” Harry added with a wry smile. Ginny swallowed the lump of disappointment. “I want to be friends,” he told her desperately and Ginny nodded eagerly.

“Let’s be friends,” she agreed. “Friends who work together, but do not sleep together,” she joked and was grateful when Harry laughed.

“Agreed,” he said and they shared a smile. “Now, the game’s starting. Don’t hesitate to ask me anything you don’t understand.” She glared at him.

“Shove off, Potter, I’m sure it won’t take me long to get a grip of things,” she shot back.

XXX


	5. Chapter 5

Pleased with his new arrangement with Ginny and confident of his ability to get over his little crush, Harry arrived at work at seven o'clock sharp on Monday morning. He sent an admin assistant off to distribute the rotas he’d completed to each department, giving the aurors prior knowledge of what was going to happen a month from now. His team had another working week yet before they had any patrolling commitments. Monday to Friday they would work on the case, but on Saturday his whole department would be working the first games of the quidditch season. They would have Sunday off and then spend the week patrolling Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade and the other various magical areas around the United Kingdom.

Patrolling wasn’t something that any auror enjoyed. Harry didn’t mind the quidditch games because, often, he was placed in an area that meant he could watch the match and that wasn’t something he’d ever pass up. However, magical area patrolling was another kettle of fish altogether. It was incredibly boring. On interesting days, they’d have some sort of thievery or public demonstration. Usually, however, it was just general complaints from shopkeepers or business owners. Very boring.

Thankfully, they had another week of interesting case work before that began. Their current case, the drugs case, was keeping them all on their toes. Although they had originally assumed that it was one of the well known drug gangs in London, they’d discovered that it was most likely a new one. In fact, Harry’s team was certain that it was. That made it more difficult, yes, because it meant that a lot of their go-to informants were useless and the knowledge they had was of no use. But, on the other hand, it was interesting, it was refreshing and it was the reason that Harry had become an auror: to take dark wizards off the streets. What was he doing now if not that? If they could identify another gang in London and set up surveillance, it would be all for the better, even if it took a little longer than it had originally looked like it would.

Today, Harry was going to interview the families and friends of the deceased and find out where they liked to go, whether they had any new friends and, more importantly, whether the deceased were linked in any way. If they were linked, then perhaps they weren’t looking at a drugs gang, but a mass murderer.

And that would be interesting indeed.

But, before all of that, Harry had to do some paperwork. He’d chosen who was going to replace the aurors who were retiring or going on maternity leave and he had to go and get approval from Robards.

“Morning, Potter,” Robards greeted as Harry entered his office, knocking lightly. “Heard you beat Sports and Games yesterday?”

Harry grinned at the memory of the quidditch match they’d played yesterday morning. “Those guys might know a lot about quidditch, but they’ve got nothing on the reflexes and athleticism of the HP department,” Harry joked and Robards laughed.

“Good, good. Now, who are we looking to promote?” his boss said, back to business. Harry cleared his throat and laid his plans on Robards’s desk.

The meeting only took twenty minutes, with Robards agreeing with each of Harry’s decisions. As he stood to leave, there was a knock at the door. “Oh, that’ll be Arthur,” he said, “my next meeting. Hope you don’t mind, Harry?”

“Of course not,” Harry said amicably, shaking Robards’ hand. “I’ll see you soon.”

Opening the door, Harry was faced with Arthur Weasley, head of Muggle Liaison, a department that worked closely with the auror department. “Harry!” the red-headed man said excitedly. Harry gave the man a smile and took the hand offered to him. “I hear you’ve got my Ginny on your team?”

For a second, Harry’s smile faltered. He’d completely forgotten that Ginny was Arthur’s daughter. What an uncomfortable experience. “Oh- er, yeah, Ginny. She’s great,” he said lamely. Arthur beamed at him and Harry thought that the man was easy to please.

“I wasn’t too sure when she said she was going to become an auror, but I’m so proud of her,” he continued and Harry wanted to escape, not able to face the fact of what had happened between him and Ginny.

“You really should be, Arthur. She’s a credit to you,” Harry returned honestly. “I hope you don’t mind, but I really have to-” Arthur held his hand up and nodded.

“I’ll see you soon,” he said and Harry returned the sentiment, before striding away from the office without a second look.

Arthur Weasley. How could he have forgotten that he was Ginny’s father? He was a big man in the ministry nowadays, though supposedly it was a recent development. Harry shook himself, reminding himself that he was trying to get over his crush on Ginny, not think about it more. He returned to his own office. It was getting closer to eight o'clock and he had things that he wanted to do before his team arrived at nine.

XXX

“So, how did you know Charles Allen?” Maggie questioned the man who sat in front of them on a picnic bench, his hair a mess and his eyes bagged. He looked like a man who had not slept in days. Ginny felt pity pang in her heart.

Ginny and Maggie had arrived at the workplace of one of the friends of one of the victims, Charles Allen, a thirty-year-old wizard from London, who had chosen to live in the muggle world. The mother of the victim had known nothing of his drug problem but, admitting that they hadn’t been close, she had given them names of her son’s friends that might know more.

Doug James was a builder, a poor wizard who had found a home in the muggle world, just like the victim. Doug smiled wryly. “Charlie and me, we grew up together. Our mums didn’t have the money to send us to Hogwarts and we were hardly likely to get scholarships ‘cause we were pretty shite wizards,” he said with a shrug, not particularly bothered by this information. If Ginny were honest, the idea that wizards would leave the wizarding world seemed insane to her. It wasn’t that the muggle world was bad; it was just that the wizarding world was similar but with magic!

Turning back to the victim’s friend, Ginny paid attention as Doug continued, “Charlie got into uni, though. Shit wizard but not too stupid, to be fair. He was a lawyer.” They already had this information but there was no use interrupting someone that they needed information from. Letting the witness talk was a technique Ginny had learned at the Academy. “Anyway, he went off to uni and I stayed here as a builder. When he finished, he got a job and we saw each other a bit. He actually introduced me to my wife,” the man reminisced with a small voice. “She was a friend of his from his course. She’s a lawyer too, my Bernie,” he informed them proudly. Ginny gave him an encouraging smile.

“He was great, Charlie, so happy, until about a year ago. He’d been in this great relationship with a girl called Sandy. They were so happy together, you know? Me and him, we went ring shopping for her. He got this blinder of a ring and planned out his proposal - only to find her cheating on him in their bed when he got home. After that, he was different. Sadder. Bernie and I had him round for dinner once a week and tried to help him move on. We even introduced him to a new girl, Poppy Parkinson. She was a squib, a pureblood, but a squib,” Doug said with a shrug. Ginny tried not to show a reaction to the name Parkinson. She didn’t know a Poppy, though, but she doubted there was another pureblood Parkinson with a flowery name. It wasn’t uncommon for a pureblood family to hide the knowledge of a squib, but how the girl had survived Voldemort was a mystery. “They got on and for a while, it was me and Charlie, two shit wizards, my Bernie, a muggle, and Poppy, the squib.” There was even some judgement in the self-proclaimed shite wizard’s tone toward squibs.

“I think Charlie must’ve already started by then, though, on drugs, because by the time I found out, he was two months into a relationship with Poppy, and injecting all sorts of shit into his veins,” Doug continued with a sigh. “This was two months ago. I couldn’t bear to tell his mum. She lost his dad in the war and life is shit for her. Bernie and I tried to help him, as much as we could, but I guess we just weren’t enough.”

“I’m so sorry,” Maggie said, her lips a grim line. Ginny was glad that Maggie was her partner. She was very professional and straight-faced. Ginny knew that she was going to learn a lot from her. “I don’t suppose Charlie ever mentioned any names? Or did he make any new friends?”

Doug furrowed his brow, blinking away the glistening tears in his eyes. “I remember seeing him meeting up with someone. I’d gone to meet him for lunch at his office and he was outside, talking to somebody, a woman. They seemed to be good friends, laughing, standing pretty close. She handed him something. Obviously now I realise it was drugs. This was about two weeks before he met Poppy. I never got a name though - Charlie dismissed her as nobody. I thought he might have fancied her, but he was so in love with Poppy,” Doug said with a shrug.

Maggie and Ginny shared a look. “Could you describe her?” Ginny asked. Doug nodded and gave a fairly general description of a woman with long brown hair and a prominent nose. It wasn’t much to work on, especially when it could easily be a useless lead. They thanked Doug for his time, shaking his hand, before walking across the street to grab a coffee.

“Poppy Parkinson?” Ginny said wryly. Maggie gave her an odd look. “There may be a lot of Parkinsons in the wizarding world. It’s a big family. But there’s only one strand that names their daughters with flowers,” Ginny commented. Maggie nodded slowly. Clearly Maggie did not have as much personal experience with Parkinsons as Ginny, who could have named Pansy Parkinson as one of her least favourite people, even if she were staring at a lineup of death eaters.

“You think we should meet up with her?” Maggie questioned. Ginny shrugged.

“It probably wouldn’t hurt. She can’t be this mystery woman, though, because Doug would have recognised her.” Maggie nodded. “I’ll try and get some details when we get back to the office. What about this Sandy girl? Reckon there’s anything there?”

Maggie seemed to weigh it over in her head. “I doubt it, but it doesn’t do any harm to check. We’ll add her to our never-ending list,” Maggie said with half a smile. Ginny laughed and hoped that the others at the office were making headway on that said list, which took up the whole whiteboard.

XXX

“How long had she worked here?” Vicky questioned the manager of a small café in Covent Garden. Greta Price was another victim, estranged from her father since she’d graduated Hogwarts with no OWLs or NEWTs. Her mother had run off and started a new family when Greta was six, leaving Greta with just her father.

The manager of the café was a woman, about forty-years-old and clearly uninterested in Greta. Harry sighed. Every time he spoke with the close ones of the victims, he felt sadder and sadder at the desperate situations of each of these people. It really got his brain wondering what on earth this potion that they were taking promised to do. 

“About two years,” the manager replied with a sigh, “although I don’t know if I’d count the last three months. She turned up for two shifts a week and always came in pissed, or on something at least,” the woman amended, her voice a melodic, yet angry, Welsh accent.

“DId she ever mention a new friend? Or did she ever meet up with anyone here?” Harry asked a bit desperately. This was the same story they’d heard all day, all week.

“Yeah, I dunno. She had a few friends. Think there was a boyfriend on the scene, but I couldn’t give you a name. One girl came in a few times, a blonde girl,” the manager informed them. Harry almost sighed out loud. A blonde girl did not match the brunette girl that Maggie and Ginny had been told about, that they had reported back about over lunch.

“Don’t suppose you got a name did you?” Vicky said tiredly. Harry gave her a curious look. She had not been as peppy as she had once been. Vicky was Harry’s best witness care auror, full stop. She ran witness care for his entire department, not just the sub-team, and Harry had been speaking with Robards about transferring her to work with Anna McLaughlin, who ran the overall Witness Care, working with the whole ministry on the way it treated victims. At the moment, though, Harry was not willing to let her go, because there was something going on that Harry could not identify.

“Pippa, I think,” the manager said. Thanking her for her time, Harry and Vicky exited the café.

Harry spotted a bench and wandered over, pulling out a packet of jelly babies from the inside of his coat. Vicky gave him an amused look. Offering her one, Harry wasn’t surprised when she refused him. “Are you okay?” he asked her.

“Why?” Vicky laughed. “Because I don’t want a jelly baby?”

Harry laughed, reaching across for her hand. “No, Vic, because you’re not yourself.”

“Harry,” she sighed. “I’m fine. I just have a baby at home and I am tired,” she told him. Harry nodded and put his arm around her shoulders.

“If you need more time off, or if you want to look at your hours-” he started.

“No,” she snapped quickly. Harry blinked in shock. “Sorry, Harry, no. I love work, you know that.”

“I know,” he said softly, wishing she felt able to open up to him. “I’m just here if you need me. That’s all I’m saying,” he promised. Vicky smiled. Something came across her eyes, her mouth opening, and then left, taking the flight of thought with it.

Rather than say what she was about to say, she only said, “thank you,” in a whisper. Harry squeezed her hand.

“Come on. Let’s go and get a doughnut before heading to the next place.”

XXX

“Okay, so we have a variety of women who have started showing up in the past three months or so, a variety of different reasons for using drugs, a variety of different drug pasts-”

“Yes, thank you, Stacey,” Harry interrupted, standing up from where he had been slumped, starting at the data board in front of him. He placed himself in front of it. “I realise that we don’t have much to go on right now, but we are going to figure this out. I know that everyone has found more leads today, so we’re going to follow those up in the next few days. New leads are more potential answers, not just more work.

“Ken, Alex, you guys try and figure out how we can get some CCTV from Charlie Allen’s building to find this brunette woman. The witness having seen her giving him something makes her our best lead at the moment, but brown hair isn’t good enough. We need a closer view.”

Harry turned to Ginny and nearly faltered at the sight of her, eagerly watching him, her pen in her hand, ready to write down whatever task he gave her. Swallowing, he said, “Ginny, Poppy Parkinson might be difficult to find. I didn’t know Pansy had more than two sisters and I don’t know if the system will either. It’s quite likely she was deleted as soon as her lack of magic became apparent. If you need to, I would talk to Mrs Parkinson, or Camellia or Dahlia. From what I’ve heard, I very much doubt Pansy will speak to you.” Ginny snorted and Harry realised that she would have been at Hogwarts at the same time as her. Harry gave her a smile before moving on.

“Vicky, you chase up DNA on the potion bottle found with the victim. Everyone else, I want you to follow the leads. Mags, you stay with Ginny on this Parkinson thing. That, I think, is everything. Now, you can bugger off and I’ll see you tomorrow,” Harry said with a grin to his team, to their general approval.

XXX

“Oh, Ginny, look at the state of your hair,” were the first words that came out of Molly Weasley’s mouth as Ginny arrived at the Burrow for Monday night's dinner with her family. “Did you even bother to brush it before you got here?” she fussed. Ginny batted away her mother’s hands and, despite how much she wanted to strangle her, gave her a hug in greeting.

“Who’s here?” Ginny asked, taking off her coat. She’d had time to go home and get changed, but, clearly, not enough to do anything else with her appearance. At least she wasn’t in auror robes. That would have caused a kerfuffle. No, Ginny had gone with a nice top, a pair of jeans and ballet shoes. It was difficult to find something that wouldn’t wind her mother up nowadays.

“Oh, Ronnie, and Bill and Fleur, and the kids. George and Angelina should be here soon,” Molly said and Ginny nodded, pleased that it would not just be her, her parents and her brother. “Your father’s in the living room, dear.” With a smile, Ginny went to greet her father.

“Ginny,” her father cried as she walked into the room. He stood and greeted her warmly with a hug. “I had a meeting with your boss, today,” he told her as he gestured for her to sit down on the sofa next to him, plumping up a patchwork cushion for her.

“With Commissioner Robards?” Ginny checked as she took her seat and her dad nodded. She knew that her dad had quite a good relationship with the auror department.

“Just work related, of course, but I did see Deputy Commissioner Potter on his way out,” he continued and the other adults in the room, Ron, Bill and Fleur, all looked up with interest. A sort of strangled noise emerged from Ginny’s throat. She had never considered that her father knew Harry. How had that never occurred to her? “He said that you are a credit to this family,” her father announced to the room proudly. Ginny wondered what had gone through Harry’s mind when he had said that. She was sure that he had freaked when her father spoke to him and she was even more sure that Harry had not started the conversation.

“Well, of course she is,” Ginny’s mother said exasperatedly from the door. “She’s our Ginny and, of course, she’s fantastic at whatever she does.” Ginny’s heart warmed and she gave her mother a smile. “Of course, that doesn’t mean she needs to be doing something so dangerous,” Molly muttered as she wandered back into the kitchen. Ginny met her eldest brother’s eyes and appreciated his exasperated look.

“Are you enjoying working with Mr Potter, Gin?” Bill asked and Ginny nodded, beginning to explain all about the physical training and the others who worked within the office, focussing particularly on Maggie and Robin, who she got along with best.

“Won’t be long until it’s you too, Ronnie,” Arthur pointed out and Ginny tried to contain her smirk. Her brother’s grades were hardly stellar at the Academy. Ron nodded enthusiastically, however.

There was a shout from the door. Ginny jumped up immediately to greet her brother and his wife and ignore Ron’s comments about the essay he was writing at the moment, not appreciating the glances he was giving her, practically begging for help.

XXX

“So, Harry,” Tonks began as they started to dig into their meals, “Sirius reckons you’ve got a bird on the go.”

“A bird?” Teddy spluttered, little giggles rising from his throat like bubbles. Delilah stared between her big brother and Harry and decided to giggle too. A smile rose unbidden to Harry’s lips.

“What does that smile mean?” Remus asked, his lips quirking. Harry’s lips gaped slightly.

“No! No, I was just smiling- coz- you know- Lilah and Teddy were giggling and, you know, it was- you know-”

“Well, you’ve not exactly used your skill with words to win this mystery girl over,” Tonks said sardonically and Harry rolled his eyes.

“Come on, this is the only conversation I ever have with people. Oh, Harry, who are you dating? Oh, Harry, have you got a girlfriend? I’m not- I’m not looking for anything right now,” he finished, slightly lamely. Remus and Tonks shared one of those blasted looks. Sirius and Amelia would do the same thing. It was a married thing. Maybe they were telepathic.

“Can we talk about the baby? Will you tell me if it’s a boy or a girl yet?” Harry begged and Tonks cackled evilly. “You’ve told Sirius!” Harry protested, taking a shot in the dark, using what he knew of Remus and his lack of ability to keep a secret.

“No we haven’t!” Tonks said, shooting a look at her husband.

“You so have,” Harry said, shaking his head. “How rude. Can you believe this, Lilah?” he asked his goddaughter, who proceeded to hit him on the nose with a spoon. “Lovely.”

XXX

“So, Ginny, did you have a nice night out on Friday?” Bill asked her across the table. Ginny closed her eyes in annoyance.

“You’ve been going out?” Molly shrieked immediately. Victoire and Dominique began to giggle and Fleur spoke to them quickly in French.

“I went out once,” Ginny defended, “with my team. I have to know them outside the office.”

“And that means you have to go out and get drunk?”

Ginny shrugged. “No, but it’s a nice add-on.” George snorted into his drink and then grunted as Angelina most likely hit him on the leg. Molly harrumphed. “Anyway, I didn’t get that drunk,” Ginny lied.

“Didn’t stop you shouting at us, did it?” Ron added and Ginny glared at him. Brothers were the worst.

“Well, I can’t help shouting at you when you come over and embarrass me in front of my team,” Ginny muttered. “Anyway, can we not talk about something else? Like, Audrey, you’re pregnant.”

Audrey, Percy’s wife, blinked. “Erm, yes, Ginny. Good observation.” Ginny’s face flamed. For goodness’ sake. Family was the worst.

XXX

“Harry! Harry! Everyone!” Alex shouted throughout the offices. Harry looked up from some paperwork he was filling out and eagerly jumped up, pacing over to where Alex and Ken were sat in front of a CCTV viewing device. The rest of the team that wasn’t out following leads rushed over to them.

“What are we looking at, Alex, Ken?” Harry questioned, looking at the screen which seemed to show two people speaking to each other. Ken shot a smile at Harry.

“That woman, there, is Clara Beddon and the male is Joe Sitter-”

“Both victims!” Harry said, looking more closely at the screen. This was the first time they had seen two victims interacting with one another. Of course, of the twenty-three who had shown up so far, this was only two, but it was a start. Beddon was seen on screen caressing Sitter’s arm and having a conversation for at least two minutes.

“Right, that’s Beddon’s workplace, so go and talk to them again. Take a picture of Sitter. See if anyone knows how they knew each other or, well, anything, to be honest. You go, Alex, take Rubes. Find me an answer,” he begged them. His interest in this was slowly waning as less and less leads turned up helpfully. Both of his employees gave him a salute and hurried off to the offices that the two victims had been spotted outside.

Surely, if the two of them knew each other, they got the drug from the same place. Surely surely surely.

“Oh, guys, while we’re here, HP is looking for some players for the quidditch team. We’ve got two retirements looming and some people who only want to play every now and again. Please, please, pretty please, come sign up?” Harry asked, in the same tone of voice as he asked for answers on the case. Ginny let out a small laugh and asked where to sign her name. Harry grinned, probably too much, only stopping when Stacey announced that she wanted to play too.

XXX

“No one? No one in the whole database?” Harry demanded of Vicky loudly. She flinched, possibly at the volume, possibly at his tone.

“I’m sorry, Harry,” she replied quietly. “The only fingerprints on the potions bottle belonged to the girl we found holding it. I don’t know what else to say.”

Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “I assume they’re looking for a magical signature.”

Vicky nodded. “It’s much harder to hide,” she reminded him, “so it’s more likely to give us a positive answer.”

“When will we have the results?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted, “maybe by tomorrow, possibly the day after. They’re pretty busy.” Harry sighed again and dismissed Vicky, sinking into his desk chair. The papers had started to publish articles about the increasing amounts of deaths. Soon, Harry would have to give a press conference to explain why they had no answers.

With one last sigh, Harry got up to leave. He really shouldn’t be late to his workmates’ dinner.

XXX

“What happened to this bird you were bringing?” were the words that greeted Harry as he entered the house of Dave and Vera Jennings, holding an expensive bottle of red wine. Dave looked somewhat displeased to see Harry on his own.

“I told you, mate, there is no girl,” Harry said back, laughing and handing Dave the wine, which he admired. When he was finished pricing it up, he groaned as he understood what Harry had said.

“I’ll get the truth out of you somehow, Potter,” he swore, leading him into the living room, where Naomi Logan and Frankie Dixon, Sam and Jackie Allen, Mike Allison and Anna McLaughlin and, Owen and Rachel James were lounging on various surfaces. “Vera’s in the kitchen. I think Nic and Sabrina are coming too,” Dave informed him.

“Brilliant,” Harry said with a roll of his eyes. “Not even a girl for me to take home, how thoughtless of you.”

“You’re perfectly capable of finding girls yourself, Potter. It’s not our fault you don’t,” Dave’s wife, Vera, called from the kitchen. Harry snickered and sat himself down next to Naomi and Frankie.

“What about that girl from the other night?” Naomi asked and the boys that Harry had been to the gym with let out a groan. Harry rolled his eyes affectionately.

“She- she doesn’t matter, that’s over,” he said definitively, ignoring his brain telling him that he was lying. His plan to stop his crush on Ginny was failing miserably. She was all he thought about. He watched Naomi and Frankie share a look and continued, “it is! It didn’t matter. One time thing.”

“Sure, sure,” Naomi said, wafting her hand to dismiss him and turning to ask Dave about dinner.

XXX

“Vera, my darling, that was fabulous. Can I swap you for Jackie?” Sam Allen declared, kissing Vera’s cheek as he and Jackie left for the evening. Jackie slapped his chest, laughing.

“Come on, love, let’s get home,” she said, sharing an eye roll with Vera. Harry watched as each couple continued to leave. When finally Nicola and Sabrina left, Harry realised he had to go. The problem was, he didn’t want to go home to an empty bed and flat.

“Right, I’m off then,” Harry announced, pulling himself off the sofa. Dave gave him a smile, shaking his hand and promising to speak to him about the case the next day at work. Harry gave Vera a hug and then left their warm, inviting house, into the cold, dark night.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Harry walked down their short road in Bedford. He did honestly love where he lived; there was nothing wrong with the flat itself. It was the fact that when he went to bed, it wasn’t holding the hand of a girl that he loved. 

Watching Naomi and Frankie, or any of the others, Harry felt a sort of ache. It wasn’t that he felt awkward at the dinner, not that at all. It was that he wanted someone. Was that so much to ask? He had so much love to give, so much free time and attention he wanted to give to someone. Yet, the only girl he wanted at the moment, he couldn’t have.

Harry reached the alleyway and apparated away with a sigh, to a lonely bed and a lonely heart.


	6. Chapter 6

During his daily paperwork session, an auror burst into Harry’s office. “Good morning,” he said jovially, looking up to find Chloe, her face stricken. Harry’s face fell. “What is it?”

With a reluctant face, Chloe said, “Another victim, Harry; you’d better come.” Throwing his pen down, Harry jumped up from his desk, abandoning the paperwork he had nearly finished. He followed Chloe to where Vicky, the forensics expert, Maggie, head of witness care within their team, and three other investigative aurors from their team were waiting. In Ken’s hand was a portkey, ready to take them to York, where Ken informed them that the victim had been found.

“Let’s go,” Harry said, eager to find the answer to this growing list of deaths. The portkey lit up as it activated, whisking them away from the office and depositing them roughly on the cobbled street of the Shambles.

Most wizards had made a trip to the Shambles. York was a magical city, by origins. It had a larger magical population than any other city in the United Kingdom, other than London, and the old shopping street that was such a popular tourist destination was a perfect blend of magic and muggle wares, the wards that hid the magical shops built into the very foundations of the street. Sirius and Remus had brought Harry here just a few weeks after they had taken him away from his aunt and uncle. He had loved it. It was one of his favourite childhood memories, and there were lots of good ones to choose from. 

The police were already on the scene, the whole street cordoned off. At the end of the street, tourists and York citizens peered around the yellow tape for a glimpse of what was going on. Harry pulled out his fake police badge and approached the officer examining the body that lay dead on the floor, a man, blonde and about 25 years old, if Harry had to guess. “Cause of death?” Harry asked, bobbing down to the officer’s height. The officer shrugged, perplexed.

“We think drugs, but can’t be certain until there’s been a post-mortem,” she replied, the dazing charms on Harry’s badge making her trust him immediately. It was the most helpful piece of magic in Harry’s field of work.

“That’s our department,” Harry said with an easy smile. The officer looked at him and seemed pleased rather than surprised at the odd turn of events. “We’ll take it from here.” Without the slightest complaint, the officer called away her team, the eight of them leaving the Shambles to just the aurors, giving them plenty of space to do their own investigation. In the corner of his eye, Harry saw a flash of Chloe’s peroxide blonde hair as she came to kneel next to him.

“The witch who reported it reckoned she recognised the symptoms,” Chloe informed him in low tones, adjusting herself on the cobblestones. Harry nodded, searching through the victim’s pockets.

“Or recognised this?” Harry said grimly as he pulled a small potion vial from the dead man’s jacket. It was the same type of potion bottle as Vicky had sent to have examined by forensics last week. Harry sighed, scratching the back of his head. “Wallet?” he questioned as Chloe fiddled around in the man’s pockets. Chloe nodded, successfully retrieving a wallet.

“ID says Donald Michael Butcher, aged 19,” Chloe said, not bothering to reprimand her boss as he swore. Harry thought that this one was the youngest so far. “From Thirsk, just down the road,” she told him quietly. Harry nodded.

“Vicky, do what you need to do. The rest of you, look around for anything. Ask the crowd if they saw anything, how it happened,” Harry ordered them, before taking another look at the body and swearing.

XXX

“He breaks all the fucking patterns!” Harry said, punching the whiteboard and regretting it immediately as his fist sang with pain. With an irritated sigh, he continued, “Not only is he not from London, he’s younger than usual, without a job, without the money to buy the drugs. He’s a muggle by all accounts - no wand found on the body. We’re searching the close-to database as we speak.” Harry groaned aloud as he finished, Ginny entering the room with a face that did not suggest success.

“Vicky’s speaking to them about the magical signature, Harry,” Ginny said. Harry didn’t even allow himself a glance at her. He was so fed up with everything. When had the case started to go downhill - or, rather, go nowhere? “She said they’ll have something within the hour.”

“But it does seem to be the same signature as on the first bottle?” Harry checked, not looking away from the board, looking, searching for clues. 

“Yes,” she replied.

“It’s odd we’ve only found two, isn’t it?” Lewis pondered, drawing Harry’s attention. “Where do the other bottles go? If it’s taken as a potion, rather than as a pill, how long is it before they die? There must be enough time to get rid of the bottle.”

It was an interesting thought. Stacey spoke up, “It seems to be about twenty minutes, but maybe it affected Butcher faster, because he was younger maybe, and that’s why he was still in the middle of the busiest street in York.”

Harry collapsed onto a chair. Ginny said that she’d go and make a batch of coffee and Harry waved her off. Did Butcher want to make a statement by dying in the oldest street in Britain, on one of very few streets where magic and muggle came together? They’d published the name of the potion and what it contained days ago, so anyone who was buying it knowingly was suicidal, surely, because it killed without exceptions. Unless they’d not seen any papers, which was always a possibility in this world. So did Butcher know what it was? Did he want people to see him die?

Or were the gang not telling them what the potion contained? Was it being sold as something else? A cure for something perhaps? Was it murder? Were the victims being targeted? Harry threw his head back, expelling a large loud breath. If only they could find out what these people had in common, then they’d know. If only there were a link. But, so far, there appeared to be nothing, other than that they’d got the potion from London.

But Butcher hadn’t. Had he travelled to London to get this thing, this possible cure? Was it rare and well-advertised by this new gang in London? Or had the gang been unnoticed and spread as far as York? Were there dealers all over the country, over the world? At first, this had been exciting, that it was new and it would be a big solve, a solve that was worth the hard work. And it definitely would be, if they solved it. Now that the names were piling up, the deaths, the possible extraneous leads, it was looking like they would never solve it and it would be more of a scandal if they didn’t solve it, because more people were dying every week. The pressure was piling on and they had nothing to give them in response.

“News, boss,” Vicky’s voice came from the door, interrupting Harry’s brooding. Swinging his head forward, Harry stood up immediately, eyes wide and eager for something - anything - that they could report to the ministry - and the press - as a success. Every auror in the room looked up from what they were doing, likely with the same thoughts. “The signature is from the manufacturers,” she told him and her tone told Harry that she knew that he was going to be disappointed. Harry swore. “Obviously it’s the same manufacturer because it was the same signature, so they seem to be from the same batch, provided that we don’t believe in coincidences.”

“Which we don’t,” Harry sighed. That information was essentially useless. They were from the same batch, so what did that matter? They were sold by the same person, yes it did confirm that, but they were working under that assumption anyway. Harry inhaled deeply, looked down at the floor as he tried to get his frustration under control and then proceeded to look up and sling the fle in his hand across the room, loose pieces of paper flying wildly as it reached the door to the kitchen, where Ginny was emerging, holding a jug of coffee.

It was like it was in slow motion, as the file hit her in the face, her skin immediately reddening, the coffee jug tumbling from her hands to the floor, where it bounced, not spilling a drop. They dropped the coffee a lot here so there had always been a spell on it to make sure that it didn’t spill. Harry suspected that it had been Tonks that sparked that, because she was forever spilling coffee in his house, or at the house that she shared with Remus, but he had never been able to make her confirm it.

These thoughts swirled slowly as Harry stared at Ginny in shock, unbelievable that he had just hit her, even if it had technically been the file that hit her. Ginny’s eyes were wide and staring at the coffee jug on the floor.

“It didn’t spill,” she said, breaking the spell Harry was under.

“Oh, my life, Ginny,” Harry said rushing forward, “I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry.” Her face was bright red, either from the file’s impact or from the embarrassment of having a whole auror squadron staring at her. She reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear.

“That hurt,” she commented lightly.

Harry felt even worse. “I’m so sorry, Ginny,” he said almost breathlessly, unable to believe what he had done. “I was angry and not thinking clearly and - I can’t believe I did that to you.” He met her eyes as he emphasised the last word. Ginny ducked her head.

“Harry,” she said emphatically. Harry blushed. “It’s fine. Honestly, it’s fine.” Ginny cocked her head to the side, grinning at him. Harry was glad to see her smile. “I probably will bring this up in the future as a bargaining chip.” 

Grinning, Harry said, “Well, I will forever feel guilty so you will be able to get whatever you want.” Ginny laughed and reached down to pick up the jug. Harry was suddenly conscious that everybody in the room was watching them. He shook his head as she stood again, shaking out the Ginny effect that he was so frequently subjected to. “Drinks are on me tonight,” he promised and Ginny cackled, an amusing, unattractive and yet wildly attractive sound that Harry loved to hear.

“A win as far as I’m concerned.”

XXX

With a shift only starting at midday the next day, Harry’s subteam were at the Chimera that evening, glugging at the first round of drinks that Harry had got in. The mood was generally subdued, full of the frustration of not making breakthroughs in the case, and feeling the hits in the press.

“Okay, enough of this boring mood,” Ruby announced, holding her tall glass of vodka orange in the air as if in a toast. “I am going to get fucked and I challenge you all to join me in this wonderful journey.” Harry laughed, though he did not want to get too drunk, aware that alcohol only intensified the Ginny effect and made him forget about the effect that sleeping with Ginny had on his position as Deputy Commissioner of the Aurors. Ginny apparently had no such qualms.

“Here, here,” Ginny said, clinking her pint glass together with Ruby’s and sharing a laugh. Robin was next to join in, followed swiftly by Alex, forming the youngest aurors in the squad, of which Harry was one too.

“I don’t even want to think about the case for the next few hours. I want to pretend it does not exist,” Harry told them, looking around the table. Ken’s face was morose. He always took failures personally. Squeezing Ken’s shoulder, Harry said, “Someone tell me something interesting. Alex! Bet you’ve got a story for us,” he demanded of the Mexican-born auror, hitting him on the back. Alex coughed slightly.

“Oh, well, I guess this is as good a time as any,” he said, scratching his head. “Amy is pregnant!” Alex announced, speaking of his wife. Gasps and cheers lit up around the table. Ruby and Robin came together to catcall Alex, which made Harry laugh, unfortunately looking over at Ginny just as she looked at him. Her eyes were shining with laughter and happiness. Ignoring that, Harry clapped Alex on the back.

“Alex, mate, that is fantastic,” Harry told him genuinely. “That has properly cheered me up.” Alex gave him a grin that split his face.

While Harry called over for some champagne and glasses, Chloe started a rapid succession of questions, “Does your wife not want you at home tonight? How long have you known? Are you having a boy or a girl? What are you going to name them?” Harry snorted.

“Someone’s broody,” he jested in a sing-song voice. Chloe threw a nut at him and he caught it swiftly, throwing it back into his mouth as he laughed at her scowl.

She cocked her head. “Are you allowed to be broody if you’re single?” she questioned, lifting her drink as if in toast, and Ken chuckled, patting her shoulder.

“Chloe, darling, you’re barely thirty!” he protested and glared at Lewis, Cameron and Ruby as they started to make clock noises.

“She’s a witch! She can have children until she’s like ninety!” Stacey said in her defense and Chloe snorted.

“Cheers for the back up, Stace, but I’d rather not leave it until then.” Ginny giggled, finishing off her drink.

“Don’t worry, Chloe, we can be single pringles together,” she said, grasping hands across the table, Ginny’s plain fingernails rather paling in comparison to Chloe’s long red fake ones. They giggled as Chloe left a kiss on Ginny’s knuckles.

Harry furrowed his brow. “Are there really only three of us who are single?” Harry said, his mouth dropping slightly. “That makes me feel like a failure.”

Chloe tutted. “Harry, you’re 26 and the Deputy Commissioner of the Magical Law Enforcement department of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,” she declared dramatically, making Harry blush to the tips of his ears. “I’d hardly call you a failure.”

Harry rolled his eyes and began to pour out the champagne for everyone as one of the bar staff brought it over for him. “Still live alone, though,” he groused.

“Oi, misery guts,” Ginny said, meeting his eyes for a second too long. Harry looked down as she continued, “We’re trying to be happy here! Alex’s wife is pregnant. Someone else give us some news!”

“You’re awfully demanding for a new girl, you know,” Maggie commented dryly. Harry snorted.

“Yes, well, I am new, so you should be kind to me,” Ginny said, shrinking slightly with a giggle. “Let’s play a game!”

XXX

Harry and Ginny stumbled into their building at two o’clock in the morning. They’d stayed at the pub until closing time, then blindly stumbled around Liverpool for a while, as members of the team gradually left, one by one until it was only Harry and Ginny, sat on the steps outside Lime Street station with a portion of chips and gravy - a first for Ginny.

“Does this mean you’re indebted to me for life then?” Harry said, when they had finally finished locking the door behind them, which had been a struggle with their shaking hands, not aided by the fact that Ginny was constantly making Harry laugh. Passing the empty living room, they headed straight to the lift, stumbling and shushing each other dramatically as they did.

“Just for introducing me to chips and gravy?” Ginny scoffed, tapping his cheek. Harry grinned, following the path of her finger back to her body, where it joined her crossed arms. “Harry, you hit me in the face with a file today!”

Harry snorted as he pressed the button for the lift. “That’s not fair, darling, that was an accident! I purposefully introduced you to the wonder that is chips and gravy,” he slurred. Ginny giggled, leaning against him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and placed a kiss on her messy hair. “Your hair’s a mess,” he commented idly.

She shoved him in the side but Harry pulled her closer, even as she said, “Mean!” with a pout, highlighting her pretty lips. Harry chuckled and poked her in the side that wasn’t pressed against him. She gasped dramatically in shock and poked him back, making Harry squawk and squirm. Poking turned to pushing and soon enough, two very drunk aurors were lying on the floor outside the lift, ignoring the beep that signalled its arrival.

Ginny began to laugh raucously, amusing Harry who looked up at her, enjoying the sight of her from the side, just like she had been when she had been in bed beside him. “I never had this much fun before, you know, Harry,” she declared when she’d got all of her laughs out.

He propped himself up on his elbow and turned at her. “Really?”

She shook her head, grinning. He could see her tongue peeking behind her teeth and longed to feel it against his own. “I loved the Academy and I love my mates, but this is like real life fun, you know?” Harry chuckled. “Hey, don’t mock me.”

“But it’s so easy,” Harry faux-whinged. Ginny pouted, leaving Harry to reach across and brush it with his thumb. Ginny froze.

“Harry,” she mumbled, not moving, his thumb still against her lip. Harry didn’t know who moved first. They were kissing before he even fully noticed that they were. Lips against lips and bodies against bodies.

A cough had them springing apart, both faces flaming red as they looked up to find a woman who lived on the fifth floor of their building standing above them. She was about sixty years old and her name was Mrs McNoughty. Harry recognised her from the times he had tried to watch quidditch in the common room but had found her there first, watching Countdown alone. “I have been on a plane for eight hours! Is this what I need to come back to?” she screeched. Harry covered his ears with his hands.

“Could you speak a little bit quietly?” Ginny asked politely. She pointed at Harry as she said, “he’s old, so his ears are sensitive.” Harry broke out into laughter, grabbing her by her waist.

The lady, with her suitcase and massive pink handbag, harrumphed and got into the open lift. “I shall be reporting you to the landlord!”

“Have fun with that!” Harry called back with a snort. The lift closed, taking Mrs McNoughty and her suitcase and screeching with it. Harry groaned, wishing he didn’t have to relinquish his hold on Ginny’s waist. “We should go to bed, Gin,” he said. He jumped up and offered her a hand, hating the sad look in her eyes that he was sure was reflected in his own. Ginny nodded and Harry nodded too. “Separate beds.”

“Separate beds,” Ginny repeated.

XXX


	7. Chapter 7

At 12 o’clock, Harry greeted Ginny at her desk with a mug of coffee - dash of milk and no sugar - and leaned against the divider between her desk and Robin’s. “Good afternoon,” he said and she looked up at him. Spotting the coffee, her eyes flashed.

“You’re too good to me,” she said, taking the huge mug of caffeine and holding it close to her, hunching her shoulders up as she savoured the smell. “I’m just gonna write up my report from my visit to the family member of that victim and then I’m free to run leads,” she replied and Harry grinned. She really was fitting in well. She was always so eager to help, which always made for a popular recruit.

“Awesome, I want you and Robin to go and speak to every shop or market stall owner on the Shambles. See if anyone knows him. All I know is that he’s got a cousin who’s a muggleborn - she’s a poor witch so she gave up on magic and works at a primary school in Leeds. Ken’s visiting her this afternoon,” Harry informed her, easily responding to each question that he anticipated from her. Ginny grinned, putting the coffee mug to her lips and inhaling the smell again. Harry tore his eyes from hers. “I’ll be in my office if you need-”

“Harry!” Vicky called from her desk on the other side of the office, drawing Harry’s attention away from Ginny. He furrowed his brow. “There’s an LEA from AM here to see you.”

AM. Anna McLaughlin. Witness Care.

Lead.

Calling for Maggie, Harry walked as fast as possible over to the young law enforcement assistant - or LEA, as most people in the office called them - who was waiting by his office door. Quite tall and falsely attractive, the young man seemed to be like most LEAs, who thought they were aurors and helped the department massively. Of course, there were many who were good and could actually do things without help. But there were far too many who lived up their own arseholes.

Harry swiftly shook the LEA’s hand nonetheless and asked for his name on the walk to the witness care department. He provided it - Benji. Benji wanted to be an auror but didn’t get the grades at Hogwarts. Like most LEAs. Rather than get the grades, you could work for five years as an LEA and receive a reference if you still wanted the job. Most dropped out. It was not as easy as it seemed.

Upon arriving in Witness Care, Harry dispensed with Benji’s unnecessary accompanying service and found Anna swiftly. Maggie entered the room while Anna filled Harry in on the facts: the young woman in the interrogation room knew Clara Beddon and Joe Sitter. The only two victims that they had seen conversing.

Turning into the room, Harry watched as Maggie greeted the girl, whose name Anna provided Harry with: Eliza Beddon, sister of Clara. As Maggie worked, Harry once again appreciated the need for someone like Maggie in every department. She was easily the best at what she did, perhaps beaten only by Anna.

Within twenty minutes, they knew the whole story. Margaret and John Beddon had three daughters and a son: Clara, Eliza, Joanna and Peter. On Joanna’s eleventh birthday, when her older twin sisters were fourteen, they received a visitor and, the next September, Joanna was swept away to Hogwarts. In her third year, Peter got cancer. When Jo came home for Christmas, they had already told them that it was terminal. The whole family pleaded with her, over and over, to do something, to use her magic. Jo couldn’t and the whole family, except Eliza, blamed her. Jo moved out the next summer and they never saw her again, until her seventeenth birthday, when the family she had moved in with told her that she had killed herself.

Eliza watched Clara deteriorate. Their parents both died within the next three years and it was just Eliza and Clara left. Clara would make comments. If only she had magic, she could bring them back from the dead, they could be together again. Eliza knew this wasn’t true. Jo had told them that even magic had its limits.

Anyway, Eliza sent Clara to meet the family that had looked after Jo when their own family hadn’t. That family, too, was muggleborn. Their son, Joe, had fallen in love with their Jo and, when they killed each other, blamed himself. Clara and Joe started spending more and more time together. They started seeing each other, or Eliza had thought so at least. Then, a week after Eliza had spoken to her sister about how odd it was that she was dating her dead sister’s boyfriend, Clara turned up dead. And then so did Joe.

“Wow,” Harry muttered. Eliza was officially alone in the world, no family. She was unmarried, unengaged in any sort of relationship. Harry had thought that he was hard done by, at times. There was no comparison to a woman who had lost her brother, two sisters and both parents.

Harry wandered back to HPHPHP, Maggie by his side, head full of thoughts. “I organised Eliza some therapy,” Maggie said in the corridor entrance to the main HP common room. Harry nodded.

“Good.”

“Harry, stop wallowing,” Maggie ordered. “Let’s go in and discuss what this means.”

Harry laid a hand on his colleague’s shoulder, grateful to have a team that knew him so well. “Okay, Mags. You lead the way,” he said, smiling.

XXX

“So, you think it was some sort of joint suicide?” Ginny called through Harry’s apartment that evening, tapping her fingers against his kitchen surface.

“What did I say about leaving the case at work?” Harry called back from his bedroom. Ginny nodded, pondering her surroundings. It was obviously much nicer than her apartment, hers being empty and all and Harry’s being the penthouse. It was almost double the size of hers and had two bedrooms and a study - and furniture. Her back was starting to ache from sleeping on the couch downstairs. Harry had caught her there too many times now and she didn’t want him to find out what a desperate state she was in.

“Who is our landlord?” was Ginny’s next question. Harry emerged at his bedroom door, in full quidditch gear, with raised eyebrows. Ginny pursed her lips, gesturing for him to hurry up. She had been waiting fifteen minutes for him to be ready. And people said women took their time to get ready.

“Why do you ask?” Harry asked suspiciously, reaching for some keys from a row of hooks on his shelf. Ginny glanced at it, considering how odd it was for a wizard to actually use keys, and then dragged her eyes back to Harry.

“The other night, you mentioned something about that lady not being able to contact them,” Ginny replied, biting her lip. She was hesitant to mention the other night, lest anything happen between them, but she had decided that they had enough self-control, especially when not drunk. Harry scratched the back of his neck.

“Oh, well, the thing is, I own this building,” he said, dragging out the first five words. Ginny’s jaw dropped.

“You what?”

Harry shrugged, rubbing his hand through his hair in an attempt to be nonchalant. “My parents left me some money and the goblins said that investing in property in London was a good idea. I own twenty buildings throughout the city, but this penthouse was my favourite,” he informed her casually, picking up the case of quidditch balls from the table.

“So, I pay my rent to you?” Ginny questioned intently, fully aware that he wanted the conversation to be over.

Harry sighed, stopping by the door, propping the quidditch balls under his arm. “Ginny, please don’t make this weird. I’m no different just because I’ve got money, you know. It doesn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t matter to you because you’ve got it,” Ginny grumbled, hating how much she sounded like Ron. Sighing again, Harry put down the heavy case and approached Ginny, putting a hand on either shoulder. Ginny glanced down at the floor.

“Ginny, I don’t want this money. I would give you the whole lot, if you wanted it, just so you don’t fall out with me over something so silly,” he told her earnestly. Ginny failed to subdue her smile, flicking her eyes up at him. He raised his eyebrows, making him look even more sincere.

“The whole lot is unnecessary,” she replied, shoving him away. “An Indian takeaway after training will do me just fine,” Ginny said, giggling as Harry sighed dramatically.

“If that is the price of your friendship, I will pay it a thousand times,” he told her and, grinning, Ginny dragged them out of the apartment.

XXX

“Wotcherwotcherwotcherwotcher!” were the words that exploded from Teddy Lupin as he ran and collided straight into Harry’s legs. Letting out an oof, Harry collected the four year old into his arms. It was Friday and that meant lunch with Tonks. She was on maternity leave but she still made the effort to come and meet him at the office, mostly so she could snoop on the goings on while she was off. Her being on maternity leave also meant that she brought the kids, which Harry did not mind whatsoever.

“Hey, Harry,” Tonks said, kissing Harry on the cheek. Harry returned the favour and gave a sleepy Delilah, comfortable in her mother’s arms, one too. She blinked, her pretty blue eyes bleary. “Business good?” Tonks teased, glancing at the boards that were crowding their offices. Harry rolled his eyes, not wanting to think about the case.

“All is as usual, Tonks. Have you been to see Jeremy?” Harry queried, referring to the auror who was covering Tonks’ maternity leave as the head of the department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. Tonks nodded, depositing Delilah in Harry’s big office chair.

“Mmhmm, couldn’t be running better,” she said, her bitter tone making Harry laugh.

“Probably running more smoothly,” Harry replied cheekily, avoiding the palm of Tonks’ hand against his cheek. “I’m joking, Tonks, we’re all missing you terribly. You should hear Naomi go on!”

Tonks smiled, taking a seat on the sofa in the corner of the room and running her hand over her heavily pregnant belly, placing Delilah down next to her. “She came over last week and told me how much you are all supposedly missing me.”

Clearing his throat, Harry said, “Do you want a drink or shall we go straight away?” He reached to grab his jacket with the hand that wasn’t holding Teddy.

“I’m happy to go, kiddo.” She stood and went to grab Delilah.

“I’ll get her, Tonks,” Harry said, holding a hand up. “Teddybear can walk now, ‘cause he’s a big boy, aren’t you Teds?”

Immediately, Teddy began wriggling out of Harry’s arms. Tonks rolled her eyes fondly at Harry who winked back. Scooping up Delilah in his arms, Harry took Teddy’s little hand and led the family out of his office.

“Tonks!” Harry heard from the other side of the office, stopping them in their tracks. He turned to find Ginny approaching in a hurry and not looking at him. Harry ignored the stupid disappointment in his chest.

“Ginny!” Tonks cried and embraced Harry’s auror into a hug. Harry’s lips parted, looking between Tonks, who was his family, and Ginny, who was his work- friend- sometimes lover. He felt like two worlds were colliding.

“How are you? Man alive, when are you due?” Ginny laughed, nodding at Tonks’ stomach. Tonks chuckled, giving her a loving punch to the arm. Was this a dream? How good friends were they? How had Tonks never mentioned her? Harry’s brain was going into overdrive. He looked to Delilah for support but the traitor had fallen asleep.

“Any day now,” Tonks admitted with a sigh. “My lovely godson is taking me out for a fancy lunch,” she told Ginny, patting Harry’s arm. Harry furrowed his brow and gave Tonks a funny look.

“You do know I’m taking you to Pizza Hut, right?” Tonks scowled. “And, technically, you’re not my godmother.”

Tonks pursed her lips and patted Harry on the arm. “Okay, I’m sorry, I’m your step-godmother.” She looked at Ginny and gave her a long-suffering look.

“I mean, technically, Remus is my adopted godfather.”

Tonks gave him a look and whined, “I am nine months pregnant, kid. Give me a break.” Harry chuckled and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, popping a kiss on her bright blue hair.

“Mummyyyyyy,” a voice down low whined.

“Oh and who are these lovely two?” Ginny cooed, crouching down to be on eye level with Teddy. Harry grinned down at Teddy who was now stamping his feet.

“Teds, why don’t you introduce yourself to Ginny?” Harry prompted. Teddy stuck out his hand and rigorously shook Ginny’s. Ginny looked up at Harry with amusement. Harry snorted. “Ginny, this is Teddy, Remus and Tonks’ son and this,” Harry continued, gesturing to a sleepy Delilah in his arms, “is Delilah.”

“And this is,” Tonks started, gesturing to her stomach. Before she continued, though, she looked at Harry and gestured for Ginny to come close, whispering something to her. Harry gaped, narrowing his eyes.

“If she’s just told you what that baby’s name is, or even its gender, you are telling me as soon as I’m back from lunch or you are fired,” Harry said, pointing at her. Ginny laughed, looking at Tonks with an obvious wink, and Harry allowed a smile to curl on his lips. “Come on, Tonks,” he hurried, taking his eyes off Ginny’s sparkling ones, “I want a pizza.”

“Okay, okay,” Tonks said, grabbing one of Ginny’s hands and giving it a squeeze. “I want a catch up, Weasley! When I’ve given birth, you can come over and meet baby and we can have a proper natter,” Tonks said enthusiastically.

“Yes, definitely!” Ginny agreed. Harry wondered if he should feel concerned. Tonks was usually quite good at sussing out a situation. He absolutely could not let on that he fancied Ginny at lunch today, otherwise his step-adopted-godmother would undoubtedly talk to Ginny about him.

“Pizza, mumma, pizza!” Teddy hurried and Harry grinned.

“Pizza,” Delilah chirped in sleepily. Harry chuckled and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“See you all later,” Harry called, giving his team a wave as he and Tonks approached the floo out of the office.

XXX

As Ginny rushed to meet her dad for lunch, she considered seeing Tonks again. The metamorphmagus had been Charlie’s girlfriend for three years, their last two years at Hogwarts and then one bad year afterwards. With Charlie in Romania and Tonks in London training to be an auror, it just had not worked out. Ginny had been devastated, just ten years old, when they broke up.

They’d spoken since, of course. Tonks had been a frequent visitor during the War. At one point, her mum had wanted Bill and Tonks to become an item, despite how odd that would’ve been for Charlie. Since the war, however, Ginny and Tonks just hadn’t really spoken. She’d sent her a letter when she had started at the Academy and they’d kept that up for a while but they’d petered off. To say it was a pleasant surprise to see her again was an understatement.

And with Harry! Ginny knew that Tonks had married Remus Lupin, who had had a large role in the Order towards the end of the war, but she had known nothing of Remus’ connection to Harry, or the Potters, whatsoever.

Harry holding the children was so sweet too. Ginny didn’t really want to consider the way her heart had panged. It probably had more to do with the children than Harry anyway. Teddy, the little boy with blue hair, and sleepy little Delilah on Harry’s shoulder. They were precious. And Tonks had told her some information about the next baby! Evidently, they hadn’t told Harry yet, and Ginny was not about to now. Tonks didn’t have very long to go now. Harry could wait a few more days, or weeks.

Pushing the way Harry had kissed Delilah’s forehead out of her mind, Ginny knocked on her dad’s office and entered upon his call. “Hey, Dad,” she greeted.

XXX

“So, you didn’t tell me Ginny was on your team!” Tonks cried when they had finally ordered at the restaurant. Harry rolled his eyes.

“I didn’t even know you knew her!” Harry protested, looking up from the colouring sheet that Teddy was preoccupied with.

“I know all the Weasleys, don’t I? They were part of the Order!”

“Oh,” Harry said stupidly. He did in fact know that the Weasleys were part of the Order. They were at the Final Battle, too. Briefly, Harry wondered if Ginny had been there.

“And,” Tonks sighed, “I was dating Ginny’s brother Charlie for three years.”

“What?” Harry exclaimed in shock. “I didn’t think anyone existed before Remus for you.”

Tonks caressed her overly large pregnancy bump. “We were together from the time we were 16 until we were 19. And, before you say it, of course Remus knows. At school, everything was perfect, but then we left. He went to Romania and I was at the Academy. There just wasn’t enough love there to work at it,” she said with a shrug.

“But, while we were still dating, I used to spend a lot of time at the Burrow and Ginny was the only one home. She was only ten,” Tonks said with a small smile, “and she was absolutely obsessed with a certain hero called Harry Potter.”

Harry spluttered on the water he had been drinking. “Excuse me?”

Tonks chuckled. “She had all the books and the dolls. Every Christmas she’d ask for more Harry Potter information. It was all she ever wanted. Once,” Tonks started with a laugh, “she made me shorten my hair so I could pretend to be you so that she could marry Harry Potter.”

“Oh my life,” Harry said, his jaw dropping. He could not wait to talk to Ginny about this. She had not let on about it at all.

“You better not use this against her, Potter,” Tonks said suddenly, pointing a finger at him. “I don’t want Ginny being mad at me.”

“You’ve not spoken to her in how long? I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Harry said, waving off her objections. Tonks scoffed.

“Oh, I just want some pizza!” she complained, rubbing her stomach, and Harry chuckled.

“Pizza pizza pizza!” Tonks’ son shouted. 

XXX

“Dad, you know I obviously miss you all, but living away, it’s like I’m finally an adult! I’m twenty-five and I only just feel like an adult,” Ginny tried to explain. Her father had been trying in vain for the whole lunch to convince her to move back home.

“But, Ginny, surely, with starting a new job, maybe looking after a new flat is just too much,” he continued. Ginny sighed. If she was honest, the only thing she was doing in her flat was eating. The rest of the time she spent in the living room downstairs, sleeping or wishing that Harry would come and spend time with her. She could hardly tell her father that, though, could she? She’d spent ages on Monday evening at dinner trying to convince her family that they couldn’t visit her flat just yet.

“Honestly, Dad, I’m enjoying the challenge. I love it,” she told him honestly. So far, there was very little about this life that she didn’t like. Her dad finally sighed and gave up.

“What’s it like working with Deputy Commander Potter, then?” he said, changing the subject in an effort to save the lunch. Ginny smiled gratefully. “I’ve always got on with him. He seems very humble, but his presence does command respect.”

Ginny nodded. “He’s very lovely,” she said quietly, unsure how much to say. The last thing she wanted to do was imply there were any feelings there, particularly after the way she had been when she was young.

“He seemed to be very pleased with you,” Arthur said. Ginny nodded, swallowing the rest of her sandwich.

“Yes, I hope so.” Possibly sensing Ginny’s discomfort, her dad changed the subject yet again, this time to Bill and Fleur’s daughters, Victoire and Dominique. On this subject, Ginny could never be uncomfortable or bored.

XXX

“Right, team, hope you’ve had a lovely lunch,” Ken began, taking over from where Harry would usually stand. Ken was Harry’s second-in-command, a kind man who was always making the team laugh. “Harry’s running a little bit late helping Assistant Commissioner Tonks. Lists are on the board, so, partners, take a task and go together. Maggie and Ginny, you need to stay behind.”

The team, showing their competitiveness, rushed over to the board as fast as possible in order to end up with the most interesting task. Quickly, there were groans as Ruby and Cameron got left with paperwork. Most other partners rushed out to follow up on potentially useless leads, with only Alex and Lewis left to go and help next door’s case.

Maggie and Ginny were ordered to go and work on their development books. Every week, Ginny had to fill in information about how the week was going. With very few leads to follow up on at the moment, the free time allowed Ginny to be able to get the work done at work, rather than at home in the evening. Maggie’s book was a routine book for all Inspectors. Details had to be filled in every week like Ginny’s.

So, the two of them sat down in their opposite facing desks and began to fill in each section. The work was tedious, but it was better than watching another parent cry, Ginny supposed.

An hour later, when Ginny was nearly finished, Harry burst out of his office. Absently, Ginny wondered how long he had been there. “We’ve got a match! Finally! Shambles victim,” he said and Maggie, Ginny, Ruby and Cameron jumped up from their boring work. “Ginny, Maggie, let’s go. Rubes, Cam, get that paperwork done!” he called, summoning Ginny and Maggie into his office.

“Fuck you, Harry!” Cameron called back. Harry chuckled and closed the door behind the three of them.

“Okay, so Butcher has a muggle mother and stepfather. His birth father died when he was six. His sister was a muggleborn, obviously. Daisy Butcher, the sister, died before she could attend Hogwarts - in 1997,” Harry said with a grimace. Maggie swore.

“Murder?”

“Looks like it was death eaters, yeah,” Harry agreed with a grim nod. “So, we’ve got an address, now. Fancy it?”

“Of course,” Ginny said and Harry grinned at her.

“Brill. I’ll sidealong both of you, because I know the area,” he informed them and they both nodded. “Let’s go to the apparition room.”

XXX

When Harry had finally got the information from Research, he had felt rather downtrodden. Donald Butcher was from Little Whinging, Surrey, not York as they had previously assumed. Harry even recognised the street. It wasn’t too far from where Harry had spent the first thirteen years of his life, until Sirius had taken him away.

The memories Harry had there were awful. He rushed out to find people to go with him. He couldn’t have faced going there alone. When he saw Ginny, he suddenly realised that he wanted her with him when he returned to the area where he had spent the worst years of his life. He didn’t know how to process that information.

They arrived in Little Whinging, in an alley between Hedge Lane and Privet Drive. The Butchers lived on Hedge Lane, a street that Harry remembered all too well from the times in which he wandered around Little Whinging, doing anything but go back to that wretched house.

The houses brought back horrid memories for him and Harry had to take a deep breath in order to focus on the case at hand. Clearly, all the houses had been built at the same time because they were identical to the house Harry had grown up in. He wondered briefly if there was a closet under the stairs.

“Over here,” Harry summoned them, heading towards 26 Hedge Lane. In front of the house were two relatively nice cars. The family were doing well for themselves. Harry was sure that they would trade it all in for their son and daughter back.

Knocking loudly, Harry stepped back and took out his police badge. An older woman, probably about Maggie’s age, opened the door. After Harry explained who they were, she invited them in and offered them some tea, which they accepted graciously.

“Mrs Butcher, is your husband in?” Harry asked solemnly. She shook her head and offered no more information.

“My two other children are upstairs.”

“Would we be able to speak to them about Donald after we’ve spoken to you?” Harry requested and Mrs Butcher agreed, tears flickering in her eyes.

At this point, Maggie took over the questioning. Harry sat back, taking notes, as he observed Ginny doing also. “Did you ever notice a change in your son, Mrs Butcher?” Maggie asked.

She shook her head, a few graying hairs flying loosely. “No, he was the loveliest of boys,” the lady told them earnestly. Harry thought he picked up a twinge of a Welsh accent. “He stayed that way. He was quieter, I suppose, after Daisy died. She was his youngest sister and they’d always been very close. My other two children feel they’ve lost their bookends now,” she said with a laugh that Harry knew was forced.

“Did you ever even suppose that your son had found an interest in drugs?” Maggie questioned carefully. Mrs Butcher shook her head, pressing her fingers against her eyes to stem the tears.

“I just can’t believe that he ever would. His father was killed in a car crash and the driver was on drugs at the time. My Donald, he’d never touch the stuff. He promised me,” she said weepily. Harry took notes on that.

“Do you know whether your son was in a relationship at the time of his death?”

And the questioning continued. Mrs Butcher was clearly a strong woman, kicked down by two of her children’s deaths within ten years of one another. She stood, brushing the biscuit crumbs from her skirt onto the floor and called for her other two children, Dana and Della. She then excused herself to the kitchen.

The two girls were close in age, aged seventeen and eighteen. Maggie asked similar questions to the ones she had asked their mother. Della, the older sister, grew angry quickly when Maggie mentioned drugs, but a touch from Dana to her arm calmed her slightly.

“Where is your stepfather?” Maggie asked interestedly. The two girls shared a look.

“He took Donald’s death hard. They got on better than any of us. He- he’s probably at the pub,” Dana whispered.

“Dana!” Della reproached.

“What? It’s true!” she shot back. Della rolled her eyes. Maggie shared a look with Harry.

“Are we done here?” Della asked and Maggie sighed and released her. Dana stayed for a moment.

With tears in her eyes, Dana turned to the aurors, “It wasn’t just Donald’s death that hit Dad hard, it was Daisy’s. Dad was obsessed with magic from the second he knew that it existed. We got the letter, you see, before she was told she couldn’t go. Daisy and Dad, they used to love it. Daisy bought a wand before the evil wizards told her she wasn’t allowed to. She was playing with it in her secret garden at the park,” Dana admitted, “and that’s how they found her. We found her there, dead, cut open and bled out,” Dana said, a sob choking out from her throat. Harry closed his eyes in pain. He could picture the secret garden, could picture the little girl, excited by magic, pretending to do spells in the area that had once been Harry’s recluse too.

“You’d think it would make Dad less obsessed with magic. It didn’t. He was sure that, if one of us could do magic, we could bring her back. Donald and Dad, they were obsessed with the idea. It’s the only thing they’ve talked about for years. But, Donald, I think he became depressed the more their ideas led to nothing. I- I think he might have tried to kill himself. My dad, he thinks so too.”

XXX

Dana’s chilling statement stayed with the three aurors as they left the house, giving their deepest apologies to the family for any wizarding influence on the death of their son. The three of them stayed quiet as they wandered back to the alleyway where they could apparate back to the office. Harry wanted to grab Ginny’s hand. He felt as though he needed the support.

Killing a girl in Harry Potter’s park must have been too much of an opportunity for the death eaters to pass up.

“Harry?” a voice shocked Harry out of his stupor. His eyes widened. No, no, no. Looking up, Harry found himself face to face with his cousin, Dudley. “Harry? It is you!” he said jubilantly.

Since the war, Harry had seen his family once, when he had told them that the war was over and that they could go back to their house. Sirius had been with him, as well as Remus, whose job had been to hold Sirius back when the Dursleys were particularly rude.

“Dudley,” Harry said, trying to sound pleased. At this point, Harry finally noticed the short brunette woman at Dudley’s side, and the child that was clinging to her hand. A child with eyes just like Harry’s. The sight shocked him. He sometimes forgot that Dudley was even related to his mother.

“Ruby, Ruby, this is my cousin, Harry. We grew up together,” Dudley said excitedly to the woman next to him. Harry spotted the wedding rings on their left-hand fingers. Ruby was his wife then. Harry was a bit confused as to Dudley’s reaction to seeing him.

“Hi,” Harry said, finally stopping being rude, “I’m Harry. Like Dudley said, we’re cousins.” Ginny and Maggie were giving Harry odd looks. “These are two of my colleagues, Ginny and Maggie,” Harry introduced.

“Mr Potter, it is wonderful to meet you,” Ruby said in a quiet voice. Narrowing his eyes, Harry focused on her knowledge of his surname. If he was a worse person, he’d look into her mind. “I’m a squib, Mr Potter, well, Harry, I guess, since we’re family. My maiden name is Parkinson.”

“Parkinson?” Harry said in shock. Ginny and Maggie had both had a start, too. “As in Pansy and Poppy Parkinson?” Ruby nodded.

“My father is their father’s brother.” 

Harry forced a smile onto his face as he said, “and who’s this?” referring to the little girl.

“This is Rosey,” Ruby announced proudly. “Rosey, can you tell your Uncle Harry how old you are?”

“I’m three!” she announced, holding up three stubby fingers. Harry didn’t have to fake a smile this time.

“Harry, you should come round for dinner one night,” Dudley said and his tone was so honest that Harry was shocked into agreeing. “Next Wednesday?” he suggested before Harry could change his mind. Harry agreed and then hurried his aurors along, back to the apparition point.

XXX


	8. Chapter 8

By Saturday morning, Harry had stopped thinking about Dudley, almost. His wife, and her family, were constantly on his mind. He’d looked her up the previous afternoon in the archives and found her birth certificate, her squib certificate and her marriage certificate to Dudley. He also found Rosalie Dursley’s birth certificate with little effort. Her birthday was the coming Friday, two days after Harry would be visiting.

“Come on, Potter!” Harry heard from the door and he rolled his eyes. He was in full auror robes, ready for their first patrol of the auror year, at the Puddlemere-Holyhead game. Grabbing the door handle and opening it, he allowed Ginny access to his flat. “Are you quite ready? We need to be at Holyhead in ten minutes.”

Ginny was also in her full auror robes, but her neck was adorned in a Holyhead Harpies scarf. Harry scoffed, approaching her and removing the scarf from her neck, stepping closer to her than was strictly necessary. He could have very easily told her to take it off, rather than doing it himself. “You cannot show bias, Cadet Weasley,” he said, probably too close to her ear. Her eyes rolled, the chocolate brown flashing. “Your eyes will get permanently stuck in that position, you know.” She only pursed her lips. “You eaten?”

Getting an approval from Ginny, Harry took one banana for himself and hurried them along, out of the anti-apparition wards he had set on the building.

“You excited for your first patrol?” Harry asked her as they descended the stairs.

Ginny nodded. “I have done them before you know, in Academy.”

“Yeah, but you can actually do things now,” Harry said, a bit disconcerted by her lack of reaction to him. Perhaps she did not like him as much as he liked her. He shook the thought off, annoyed at himself for being so sensitive. Ginny nodded, her ponytail shaking.

“I suppose. I’m just excited to watch the game, if I’m honest,” she said with a grin, her shoulders rising with her excitement. Harry glanced at her, unable to keep the amusement away from his strict admonishing look. “I mean, obviously, I will watch wherever I am told to watch,” she amended, “but I am going to enjoy being in the atmosphere.”

Harry snorted. “Better.”

The apparition point was by the bins. Harry, crazy auror man that he was, received a notification every time somebody used it. “Let’s go.”

They arrived at the Holyhead apparition point in a sea of green. Ginny grinned at Harry, who felt outnumbered. Puddlemere’s colours were a much rarer sight in the approach to the stadium. “Come on, loser, let's find out where they want us.”

Francis Dixon, head of the Auror department of Magical Games and Sports, and Owen James, head of Transportation Crime and Security, were found liasing with the ministry’s head of Magical Games and Sports. “Potter!” Francis cried as he saw him approaching, “and little Miss Weasley. You’re both on Gwenog Jones End,” he informed them, checking his chart. Harry nodded, impressed that Francis knew Ginny by sight. Even he, as Deputy Commander, hardly knew every auror’s name. “We’re not expecting trouble, so you should be able to enjoy the game,” he told them with a wink. Harry and Ginny laughed, heading off to the opposite end of the stadium that had been named for the most successful manager at the Harpies, Gwenog Jones.

By the time the game began, Harry had positioned himself and Ginny in suitable places, where they could see each other, see the entire end and see the match. It was perfect. They each had a pair of omnioculars in order to watch the crowd and, if they could, the game too.

As they watched the players fly, Harry remembered (not that he ever needed reminding) why he had been so attracted to Ginny that first night, before they knew anything about each other except their first names. She was so passionate. Since spending more time with her, Harry had learned that she was this passionate about everything she loved. It was an attractive quality.

Harry had to admit it. This wasn’t a crush, or a fleeting fancy. He really liked her. And he thought that she liked him too. That was something, a slight boost to Harry’s ego, even if they couldn’t do anything about it.

Just as he thought this, Puddlemere scored. Harry let out a whoop. He heard a dramatic groan from a few rows along and didn’t need to crane over the fans between them to confirm that it had come from Ginny. Harry snorted as he did so anyway, using his omniculars to see that she was scowling at the players, flying high above the pitch.

XXX

Despite that first goal, the Harpies had won. Harry had not been happy. In fact, Ginny had cackled when he had stalked off upstairs to his apartment, barely saying goodbye to her. It had been very amusing to watch. Harry Potter, a sore loser. Ginny would hardly have guessed it.

The game hadn’t been very long. It had all been over by one. They’d grabbed a sandwich from the café near their flats and then headed back home. Ginny wanted to finish her book and Harry wanted to sulk.

The next morning, Ginny woke up excited for her first game as part of the HP quidditch team. It had been so long since she’d played a competitive game of quidditch and she was really looking forward to getting back into it. She’d put on the robes Harry had given her on Friday. They were red and silver. Ginny wondered if Harry had originally tried for red and gold but that was too Hogwarts house-based. It wasn’t really the most attractive colour for her, but she was just so happy to be wearing quidditch robes again.

Strapping on her quidditch boots, Ginny considered the rest of their team. The other two chasers were Juls Hardy and Izzy Waters. They’d played well together on their first practice. Ginny was sure that, with a few more practices, they’d be far less rusty. HPHPHP itself was fairly well represented. Alex took keeper position and Ruby was one of the beaters, alongside Eula Hoffman, an investigative action auror from HPBNDN. It was a strong team, finished off with captain Harry Potter as the seeker.

“Where the heck are my gloves?” Ginny muttered under her breath, just as Harry knocked on her door. Flicking her wand to open it, she continued her search through boxes. A shocked gasp made her freeze.

“What the hell?” Ginny stared at the box that she was looking through, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. Shit. She had not thought, letting him come into the flat. She had not wanted him to see this, had carefully led him away from her flat up to now, always meeting downstairs or at his flat. “Ginny, where is all your stuff?”

Ginny laughed nervously, finally locating her quidditch gloves at the bottom of the box and looking up to find Harry staring at her. “The thing is, Harry, erm-”

“Do you even have a bed?” he asked her incredulously. Ginny shook her head with a sigh.

“Look, Harry, I needed to move out of my parents’ and I couldn’t find anywhere cheap enough for me to put down a deposit and buy furniture, so I just put down a deposit on this place and figured I could just sleep on the floor until I got paid! And it actually worked out better because of that couch downstairs,” she said with a shrug, hoping he wouldn’t overreact.

His eyes were wide as they traced every inch of the room. She was glad he couldn’t see into her empty bedroom. “I- what- Ginny, you should’ve told me.”

“What? So you could look at me with that pity in your eyes like you are right now?” she questioned with a scoff. His eyes fell to the floor. “Come on, Harry, it’s fine. There’s a week left and then I can go and buy a bed.”

“And a sofa? And a table? Bloody hell, Ginny, I could have lent you money!” he said to her. Ginny stood up straight and pointed her gloves at him.

“That! Right there, this is not what I want. I want to take care of myself.” Harry looked to the ceiling.

“Why? What’s the point? I could lend you the money and you could pay me back in a week!”

“No! Harry, you don’t get it! For once, I want to do something right!”

“And sleeping downstairs where anyone could find you is right? Don’t be stupid, Ginny.”

Stupid. Ginny felt a cloud of anger descend across her brain. 

“To be honest, Harry, I don’t really see how it is any of your business!”

Harry spluttered and a grin unfurled across Ginny’s face at the victory, until his face cleared. “Well, I’m your boss! So, in my capacity as your boss and as your captain, I order you to sleep in my spare room, in the spare bed, until Friday,” he said, trailing off towards the end, “that is, if you want to.” He scratched his head.

Ginny sighed, finally giving in. “Alright. I guess that would be acceptable.”

XXX

The first night Ginny spent in Harry’s apartment (officially) was the most comfortable night’s sleep she’d had in weeks. Of course, her only other nights were slept on a sofa, the floor or in a bed with someone else - only ever Harry. And it was Ginny’s personal opinion that sleeping on your own was far more comfortable than with somebody else. Although, if Ginny had to make an exception, she would use Harry’s bed to do so. That thing was massive.

When her alarm had rung at 7:30 that morning, Ginny had not wanted to leave her bed. It had taken a further fifteen minutes to drag herself up. A quick wash and throwing her hair up in a ponytail were the only other steps she took before entering the living area of Harry’s flat. Being the penthouse, it was ridiculously large, much bigger than Ginny’s.

“Morning,” Harry said in a jolly tone from the kitchen. Ginny sniffed and narrowed her eyes. Seeing this, Harry chuckled, “would you like a coffee?”

This was possibly the only thing that could have brought a smile to a desperate-for-more-sleep Ginny. “Milky with-”

“No sugar,” Harry finished with a wink. “We’ve been working together for long enough now, Ginny. I know how you take your coffee.”

Ginny smiled, slightly touched. Then, it occurred to her that she in fact knew his coffee order too: black, one sugar. When he handed her the steaming mug, Ginny gave him another look. He was in the auror workout gear.

“What time were you up?” she asked incredulously. Harry laughed, taking a seat opposite her at the table.

“Six,” he snorted. “I ran to the gym, did an hour workout then ran back,” he informed her. Ginny’s jaw dropped. “I don’t keep this body in peak condition from just snacking on donuts all the time you know?” he teased her, gesturing at his abs which, though not on show, Ginny could picture very clearly.

“How are you not exhausted?”

“Gin,” he started, sending a shiver down her spine, “we went to bed at ten. I’ve had nearly eight hours sleep. Not all of us need nearly ten.”

“Fuck you,” she said, smirking over the lip of her coffee mug. Harry quirked an eyebrow and Ginny blushed, staring down into the coffee. “So, anything I need to know before my very first proper patrol?”

“I thought you already knew everything because you did them in the Academy,” Harry said sarcastically. Ginny rolled her eyes.

“Shut up, Potter,” she muttered. He chuckled. “Have you got any breakfast going?” she asked cheekily, her tongue between her teeth. Harry rolled his eyes.

“Porridge or cereal?” he offered and she pursed her lips. His eyes dropped to them. Ginny froze.

Stepping through the electricity in the air, Ginny yanked the packet of porridge from his hand and began to prepare it, back turned. She was sure he didn’t notice when she bit her lip.

XXX

Hogsmeade in the morning was always a joy to behold. The magic used in the area left a fog at night and, as dawn cracked, it was only just starting to clear. The toe-biting frost only added to the mystic feeling that shrouded the village. Harry clenched his hands in his black, auror-standard gloves and relaxed them. Pretty though it was, today was looking to be a cold patrol.

“Morning, boss, Ginny,” Maggie greeted them and Harry grinned at her. Head adorned with a pink bobble hat, Maggie was pink-cheeked and smiling widely, two tufts of tied back hair jutting out at either side of her headgear. “You two apparate here together?” she inquired. Caught off guard, Harry looked down at Ginny and found her looking back at him, pink lips parted.

“Erm, well, I forgot that we had patrol today,” Harry lied, wondering how he had passed the undercover module at the Academy, “and so did Ginny, so we both happened to be at the office at the same time, so we apparated here together.” Harry grinned. Ginny gave an identical one next to him. Maggie rolled her eyes at the pair of them and moved on, leading them over to where the rest of the team was apparating in, and where the old team was readying themselves to leave.

“Nothing to report, McKinley?” Harry asked the previous night’s patrol boss. McKinley, a large Northern Irish man with bright red hair, shook his head and grasped Harry’s outstretched hand. 

“All good, thanks, Potter. No trouble. We’ll see you around,” he said, gesturing to his small squad. They each gave Harry a nod of thanks as they apparated away, probably to get straight into bed. Harry struck up a conversation with Maggie at this point, about her twin daughters.

When all of HPHPHP was present, with Vicky materialising last, Harry assigned each auror to a general area, mostly in groups of three. As it was Ginny’s first Hogsmeade patrol, Harry was going to walk around with her and show her problem areas and have her meet the shopkeepers.

Ginny knew most of the shopkeepers anyway, as it turned out. In fact, most people who had been to Hogwarts knew them to a certain point, but Ginny knew them better than most. As they turned the corner down to the revitalised second street of Hogsmeade, Harry found himself confronted by the outrageously bright Hogsmeade store of Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes.

Confessing himself to have forgotten that Ginny’s brother owned the chain of stores, Harry allowed Ginny to walk him in. Of course, George Weasley was nowhere to be found. Ginny shared with Harry that George spent most of his time at the laboratory, with his team, and left the general management of the stores to the store managers. Ginny greeted this store’s manager, Michael Johnson, with a smile and a hug, before introducing Harry.

He had dreadlocks, Michael Johnson, and a wide smile to go with his career choice. Shaking hands with Harry, he introduced himself as Ginny’s kind-of-brother-in-law. When Harry questioned this, Michael explained that he was Ginny’s sister-in-law’s brother. Then, Ginny and Michael began a conversation about Angelina’s performance in the Euro qualifiers. Loathe though he was, Harry needed to move them on after about half an hour in the shop.

Michael gave Ginny another hug and reminded her that they needed a proper catch up. Harry found himself green with jealousy as they organised a time to catch up. Unable to let his anger out, he marched them to the next shop, where they had a brusk conversation with Kenny, the owner of the shoe shop.

“What is up with you?” 

Ginny’s incredulous tone only served to irritate Harry further and he stormed into the next shop and introduced them, before leaving Ginny to get to know him alone. When she emerged, she was angry too. Too focused on his own indignation, he didn’t ask what was wrong with her.

Their next stop was the Hog’s Head, a place Harry had never become too fond of, despite Harry knowing that Aberforth was a good man who had served the Order in the war. Harry greeted Aberforth with a curt handshake, then turned to introduce Ginny. Before he could, however, Aberforth had wrapped Harry’s newest auror up into a warm embrace. Blinking, Harry looked between the two of them.

“How are you, Little Miss Weasley?”

Ginny grinned, her cheeks flushed. She replied in kind, going on to ask Aberforth about himself. They then discussed George and Angelina, George’s choice to put their shop on the same street as Aberforth’s pub which had drawn more business there, and Charlie Weasley’s perpetual singleness.

When Harry asked Aberforth if there was any news, the older man sighed and scratched the back of his head. “Not really, just the usual,” he said with a shrug. “Couple of bar fights, some illegal trading and drugs, but nothing too serious. I reported it all to Hatkins when he was in a few days ago.”

Harry nodded. “What drugs?” he asked curiously.

Aberforth frowned. “Some hype potions, had some muggle cocaine - oh and something that a customer told me was African Root Pepper.”

Harry didn’t even turn to look at Ginny, although he knew she would be agape as he was. “African Root Pepper? You told Hatkins this?” Harry checked. Aberforth nodded and Harry cursed. “Do you have an ID of who used it?”

Aberforth shook his head, his beard moving slightly with the action. “I found it in the bathroom and asked a regular what it was. I had no idea, of course.”

“You know we put out a report that the stuff has been killing people?”

With a shrug, Aberforth informed them that he didn’t get the Daily Prophet. Harry sighed and gave up on this lead. “We’ll see you soon, Aberforth,” Harry said stoutly and charged out of the pub, moving far faster than Ginny’s legs could keep up with.

“Oi!” she called after him. “My legs are a bit shorter than yours, you know?”

“Sorry.”

She grabbed his arm, forcing him to turn and stop. “What is up with you?” Part of Harry wanted to shout and say that he was her boss and he didn’t need to explain himself to her but a far bigger part reminded Harry that she was his friend and that shouting at her might end the conversation but it also might end their relationship - friendship.

Sighing, Harry pulled his hat from his head and ruffled his hair. “I’m sorry, Ginny. I- It’s irrational and stupid and I don’t want you to be annoyed, but seeing you with that guy-” he shook his head “- I was just jealous.”

Ginny narrowed her eyes. “Jealous?” she repeated incredulously. “Of Michael?”

Harry nodded glumly, shoving his hat back on. “I told you it was stupid.”

Ginny pursed her lips. “It is stupid. There’s nothing between me and Michael. If you’re going to get jealous every time I hug somebody-”

“You agreed to meet up with him!”

Ginny’s eyes widened and she looked around them. “Harry, you are not my boyfriend. There is nothing between us, so you don’t get to be jealous. There happens to be absolutely nothing going on with me and Michael but, even if there was, you wouldn’t get a say.”

“I know.”

“You are my boss,” she continued like he hadn’t spoken, “and my friend and nothing more can be between us, even if-”

“Even if we both want it.”

Ginny’s eyes met his and stayed there for a moment. Harry swallowed and tore his eyes from hers. “Come on. There’s a few more people I need to introduce you to.”


	9. Chapter 9

“Ginny Weasley,” Minerva said fondly as Harry entered the headmaster’s office, alongside Ginny. Though his trips to Hogwarts had not been frequent over the years, Harry had visited it enough times in his youth to feel jarred by the sight of the changes since Minerva replaced Dumbledore. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t visited this office in almost ten years, since just before Dumbledore’s death.

“Professor,” Ginny said, her cheeks pinking. Harry turned to her and only watched in wonder as she stepped forward and embraced the stoic professor, whose smile was wider than Harry had ever seen it. The hug lasted longer than Harry would have expected, too, and he was suddenly wondering whether he had missed out exponentially by not attending Hogwarts. None of his teachers had ever been so close with him.

“Harry,” the professor said fondly, when she released Ginny. Harry did not receive a hug though, and he was quite grateful. He was not a big fan of hugging people that he was not very close to, even if they were great friends of his godfather. “I saw Sirius yesterday evening. He said he has not heard from you much recently.”

Harry scoffed without anger or malice. “He’s the neediest man in the world.”

Minerva’s lips twitched. “Please sit. I’m eager to help you.” Harry and Ginny took the two stiff-backed chairs on the other side of Minerva’s desk. Harry thought back to the comfortable chairs that had been found here before Dumbledore’s death.

“We need to speak with one of your students, Professor.” Minerva nodded though she did not give her emotions towards the proposal away. “Her brother is a recent victim of the potion that you have no doubt read about in the paper.”

“Yes,” she said severely. “You may speak with her. If it is acceptable, I would like to be with her too. She has not been herself since her brother’s death. She is quite emotionally fragile.” Harry nodded.

“Of course. I was hoping you would suggest that.”

XXX

“It’s only been a week!” Harry said into his phone, laughing down the receiver. “I haven’t spoken to Remus - That was one meal and it was with Tonks not Remus. We go out every week.” There was a lot of noise down the phone that made Ginny snort. Harry looked over at her in amusement. “Sirius, I’d better go.” Harry rolled his eyes dramatically. “I’ll speak to you at the weekend - no, I can’t come on Wednesday. I’m- I’m going to a friend’s for tea.” Harry didn’t make eyes with Ginny.

Ginny furrowed her brow, remembering the meeting between Harry and his cousin. Ginny had thought it very odd that he did not know the woman that his cousin had married, nor his cousin’s child. Even with as many cousins as she had, she knew each one and all pertinent details about their life. “Ginny Weasley’s house,” Harry said, making Ginny look up, raising her brows. “Oh - yes - Arthur Weasley’s daughter. You speak to him often?” Ginny could hear a note of panic in Harry’s voice and then watched his face relax as he received a negative from the man on the other end of the phone. “Right, well, I’ll speak to you soon, Sirius.”

Harry smiled. “I love you too. Tell Amelia I’ll speak to her soon.” Harry met Ginny’s eyes and smiled. “Yeah, yeah, bye, Sirius.”

And he hung up, throwing the phone onto the kitchen counter behind him. He grabbed the Chinese takeaway from the side and padded over to join Ginny on the sofa. She had eaten most of her stir fry already, while Harry was on the phone to his godfather. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry,” Ginny said after swallowing. “How come you told him you were going to my house?”

Harry glanced down at his rice dish. “I don’t know if Sirius would like knowing that I’m in contact with Dudley.”

“Why not?” she asked, confused. He swallowed. “You don’t have to tell me,” she said hurriedly, physically backing away from him.

He shook his head. “No, it - I lived with my aunt and uncle until I was thirteen.”

“I thought- Didn’t you go to Beauxbatons?”

Harry nodded. “Dumbledore didn’t want me to go to Hogwarts. He thought I’d be safer away from the fame and fans. But, in the summer holidays, I still lived with my aunt and uncle.”

“And that wasn’t good?” Ginny asked softly.

Harry shook his head. All manner of horrible things ran through Ginny’s head. “My mother and my aunt had a difficult relationship. My aunt was horribly jealous about not being a witch.” Ginny’s eyebrows rose. She had never considered how difficult it must be to be a muggle sibling of a muggleborn. “Anyway, she wasn’t too happy about having me. She saw her sister’s death as the inevitable conclusion of her magic.”

“Oh,” Ginny whispered.

Harry gave her a tight smile. “Anyway, that obviously transferred onto Dudley so, despite us being the same age, he was never my biggest fan. In fact, I was his favourite bullying target. Sirius knows all about my childhood and he hates it, hates them, hates himself for not being there to take me away earlier.”

“Harry,” Ginny sighed, feeling horribly sad. He shook his head, laughing.

“Trust me, I wore glasses with tape in the middle and clothes five sizes too big for me. You would have bullied me too.”

Ginny scoffed, not appreciating his levity, though she understood that some people used it to get over bad experiences. “I would not have.”

Harry hummed. “You definitely would have. I can just imagine you in Dudley’s crew, pigtails and punches.” Ginny barked out a laugh and he grinned at her. 

“Why did you say yes to going for tea with him?”

Harry shrugged, focussing on his dinner. “I- You were there and Maggie and I just didn’t know how to say no. He- he seemed different.”

Ginny bit her lip and looked down. “You could call him and say you can’t go,” she suggested. Harry shook his head.

“I’d best not. Anyway, I could find something out about the Parkinsons.”

Ginny nodded. She felt like he was keeping something to himself but her witness care module at the Academy had taught her that pressing victims was never the right way to go about things. Letting them come out with the truth naturally was a far better way of developing trust and, despite all the reasons not to develop anything between them, Ginny wanted that with Harry.

She wanted to give him something back, however, almost a return of trust, so she said, “I used to have tea with McGonagall every Monday afternoon while I was at Hogwarts.”

Harry turned to her, an incredulous smile on his face. Ginny giggled. “She invited me, the first week of my second year. I was so scared the first time I arrived at her office but she was so kind and she made me feel better.”

“About what?” Harry asked.

Ginny swallowed, reminding herself that if anybody was not going to judge her for her actions in her first year, it was Harry Potter, Vanquisher of Voldemort. “In my first year at Hogwarts, I kept a diary, something that I thought had been a gift from my parents.” Ginny watched Harry stiffen and wondered how much he knew of a diary. She knew that he had got rid of all of the horcruxes before he had killed Voldemort, because Kingsley Shacklebolt had sat her down after the war to tell her and to thank her for what she herself had done. “I wrote and it wrote back to me.”

“Tom Riddle,” Harry said quietly before Ginny could even continue. She nodded.

“It possessed me.” This was perhaps the first time Ginny had told this story to anybody outside her family. To her horror, she felt tears welling in her throat. “I did some terrible things. I killed cockerels with my bare hands, controlled a basilisk and petrified my classmates.” Harry only watched her. “It dragged me away to the Chamber of Secrets.”

“And you destroyed it,” Harry finished in awe. Ginny nodded, wiping a stray tear away.

“Riddle was- he was taking away all of my life force. He was going to use me to become whole again. Before he could, I called for the basilisk in my own strength. Even at eleven, I knew that Voldemort’s return was worth dying to prevent.” Harry exhaled sharply. “But Riddle only chuckled. He told me that I could die in anyway I liked, as long as I died he would get my life force. It had been a stupid mistake, calling it, so I had to fight it and, Merlin, I thought I was going to die. But then Dumbledore’s phoenix arrived, with a hat which gave me a sword.”

“Gryffindor’s sword,” Harry encouraged, his eyes wide and his face developing into a smile. Ginny nodded, biting her lip.

“I used it to kill the basilisk and then took the sword itself and stabbed the diary.”

“And the basilisk venom ended its enchantment.” Ginny nodded.

“But because of all that, I didn’t make any friends in my first year. Everyone thought I was a freak. That didn’t really end until I left.”

“But you - you fought Voldemort!”

Harry’s vehemence filled her heart with a sort of bouncing sensation, a warm feeling that spread to the tips of her fingers. Ginny nodded with a shrug of her shoulders, trying to push down her beaming smile. “That doesn’t really matter to a bunch of twelve-year-olds.”

“It would have mattered to me,” Harry told her passionately. “I would have been your friend.” Ginny snorted. “I would!” She met his eyes and grinned. “We would have fought Voldemort together, gone on adventures together.”

“Sounds like a lot of hard work,” Ginny said, rolling her shoulders and leaning her head back on the sofa. “I think I’ll stick with McGonagall.”

Harry laughed. “So McGonagall was your best friend?”

Ginny hummed. “Yeah. We used to stay up late and braid each other’s hair and paint our nails.” Harry threw a piece of the duck from his plate at her. She dodged just in time and then picked it up from where it had landed, on the arm of the sofa, and ate it. Harry only laughed at her, the corners of his eyes creasing. “No, I had another friend. She’s still my friend but she’s mostly traveling the world. Her name is Luna. She’s quirky. She didn’t help my freak status but she did help my loneliness.”

Ginny looked down and then up again when she felt Harry’s hand caress hers. She met his eyes, startlingly green. “Thank you for telling me.” Ginny smiled.

“I’m always here to bum you out.”

Harry grinned. “That’s what I keep you around for.” Ginny’s laugh was loud and shocked and she frisbeed her plate at him, only deciding after she had thrown it that it was an overreaction and was likely to cause a mess. It was the sort of thing Fred would have done. 

Harry held his hand up to stop it, though, without his wand, and it froze in mid air, reminding Ginny of his wandless abilities. She felt something stir inside her and dragged her eyes away from Harry. She heard rather than saw him lower the plate to the coffee table.

He cleared his throat but didn’t say anything. Ginny grabbed the remote control. “Want to watch a film?”

XXX

Harry was nervous. More nervous than he had been in a while, actually. He felt confident at work and he lived alone. The only people he spent time with outside of those two places were those who he knew well and who he felt entirely comfortable with. Even Ginny now was one of those. This was different, this was nerve-wracking. He had not been back to his aunt and uncle’s house since he was thirteen. Sirius would quake from the very thought of it.

He had been surprised to discover that Dudley lived in the same house but he had been suitably assured that his aunt and uncle no longer lived there, that they had moved to the coast after the war, to avoid questions and suspicions of why they had moved out for the duration of the worst part of Voldemort’s power. Dudley had wanted to stay though, so he had and then he had married Ruby and they’d had their daughter, Rosey, and they had a life together. It made something twinge inside Harry that might have been jealousy or irritation that the awful cousin who had bullied him as a child had pulled his life together before Harry had managed it.

He shook that off, though, and knocked on the door with two strong knocks. Movement stirred inside, some laughter, and then Ruby arrived at the door, her hair curled prettily around her shoulders, away from startling blue eyes that seemed to light up upon seeing Harry. “Harry,” she said. Harry heard the genuine happiness in her voice. “Come in, come in. We’re so glad you’ve come. Rosey has not stopped asking about you since we ran into each other.”

Harry stepped inside, smiling and allowing Ruby to close the door behind him. “Oh,” he said, fumbling with the paper bag he was holding, containing a bottle of nice red and white wine. He flushed slightly as he handed it over. “I didn’t know what you preferred so I bought both.”

Ruby took the bag with a smile, again genuine. Harry almost felt jolted by the idea that he was welcome in this house. Despite the outside appearance being very similar, inside had changed dramatically and it looked more like a home of two young people, rather than the house of taupe and white that it had been. Harry was glad that Dudley had changed it. To Harry, it suggested that he would not be the person his father had been.

“That was very kind of you, Harry,” Ruby said. Harry’s eyes were drawn to a space under the stairs, where there was no longer a door, but a space filled with shelves and fairylights and photographs. Harry swallowed a lump in his throat. Perhaps Dudley had not been able to deal with the idea of a cupboard under the stairs either. Ruby didn’t notice Harry’s emotion, leading him into the room that had been the kitchen. Now, it held the living and dining room as well as the kitchen, in an open plan layout.

“A bit different, hey?” Dudley commented from where he was sitting, crouched by the fireplace with a doll in each hand. Rosey pointed at each doll, declaring to her dad what each should do. “One sec, Rosey, I’m going to say hello to your uncle Harry.”

The little girl’s head flew up, her green eyes startling Harry again. “Uncle Harry,” she said with the same excitement that Harry saw in Teddy and Delilah’s eyes, or in any of Sirius’ children’s eyes, when they saw him. It was a pleasant feeling, when somebody was excited that you were there.

“Harry brought us wine, Dudley,” Ruby said, raising her eyebrows as she pulled each bottle out of the bag and placed them on the kitchen island, which had a black surface and light-wooded cupboards. The feel of the room was entirely different. Harry felt calm there. It looked nothing like the place it had once.

“You didn’t have to do that, Harry,” Dudley said, coming to the kitchen. The little girl sat on his hip, grinning. Dudley himself was remarkably different. He was still big but it was muscle now, not fat. He looked fit, like he kept himself in good shape. Both he and Harry had changed a lot from what they had been at thirteen. Harry felt guilty for not having realised that earlier. “You been at work today?” Dudley asked.

Harry nodded. “Yeah. I work as an auror, a bit like the muggle police. That was why we were here the other day. We had to do some house calls.” Dudley nodded.  
.  
“Ruby told me. We- we get your paper,” Dudley said with a little grin, nodding to a pile of papers on the kitchen counter, which were, in fact, the Daily Prophet. There was even a Quidditch Weekly, surprising Harry. “Ruby shows me whenever your name comes up. It’s quite a lot.”

Harry barked out a laugh. “Unfortunately yes,” he said with a grimace. Rosey giggled. Harry grinned at her.

“Go and sit down,” Ruby said, nodding at the sofas. The fire was lit and it was very homely. It reminded Harry of Remus and Tonks’ cottage. “I’ll bring the drinks over. Do you have red or white, Harry?”

“Red, please,” he said with a smile, following Dudley over. His cousin took the sofa, so Harry took the armchair. Rosey returned to her dolls. “So, what do you do?” Harry asked.

Dudley cleared his throat, leaning forward in his chair. He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m actually a social worker, mainly with youth.” Harry’s eyebrows flew up. “Yeah, I thought you would be surprised.”

“No, I mean, that’s great,” Harry stuttered.

Dudley gave him a wry smile. “I get it, Harry. I know it’s weird. I- just - after you left, I started figuring some stuff out. It came slowly. I was pretty stupid back then.” Harry shared a laugh with his cousin. “But I- I started thinking about the stuff my mum and dad did and what I did and I just- God, we were awful to you. By the time we had to go into hiding, when your godfathers came and told us they were trying to protect us, I wasn’t eating from the guilt. I’d lost so much weight that my mum wanted to send me to hospital, except we couldn’t really go anywhere because of the people protecting us.” Harry’s eyes were wide while he listened. He’d hoped not to bring his childhood up this evening but now he could see how naive that had been.

“I ended up talking to one of the people who came to watch us. I don’t know his surname. You might know him. His name was Bill and he was tall, a redhead. His wife was-” Ruby cleared her throat as she came to join them, handing Harry his wine. Dudley smirked, meeting her eyes. She grinned back at him. Harry’s heart ached for the small intimacies between them. Unbidden, an image of Ginny shot into his mind. He shoved it back as quickly as it had appeared. “Anyway, I got talking with him and he really made me see that I might not have helped you but I could help other people. So, when I got out, I went back to school. I got my qualifications and I went to university and qualified in social care. That’s where I met Ruby.”

Ruby nodded. “I was studying law.”

Harry raised his brows. “Wow, that’s impressive.” Ruby nodded with a smile. Harry turned back to his cousin. “So, you work as a social worker now?” Dudley nodded.

“I’m really sorry for everything, Harry. These kids I work with now, I can see them going through the same things as you and- we were awful to you. I - I don’t speak to my parents anymore.” Harry’s eyes widened dramatically.

“What?”

Dudley looked down at his lap. Ruby reached across to grab his hand. “They- I brought this up with them and they just, they just didn’t understand what was so bad about it and- God, it was awful. So, I just, I stopped talking with them. When they left, we bought the house from them, in Ruby’s name, so that they wouldn’t know. They weren’t even at the wedding.”

“That’s why we were so glad when we saw you,” Ruby burst, leaning forward. Harry sipped at his wine. “We don’t speak to Dudley’s parents and my family is- well, you know purebloods with squibs,” she said awkwardly. Harry bowed his head. “So, it’s just us. We have friends and- well, just friends, but it just- we would love it if we could have some family too.”

Harry swallowed, unspeakably moved. This had really not been what he was expecting when he had come, not at all. He’d assumed that Dudley had changed but this was a revolution. Harry couldn’t express how impressed he was. It was a big deal to break away from something that your parents believed. Harry had seen it in the kid death eaters that he had arrested.

“I’d love that,” Harry said honestly, glancing at Rosey. “I- this isn’t what I was expecting.”

Dudley cuffed the back of his neck. “Sorry.”

“No,” Harry said, shaking his head. “Don’t. I - I don’t think you understand how much it means to me that you’re saying this. My childhood was, well - I just, I have family. I have my godfathers and their families but to have you guys too. I’d love that, honestly.”

Ruby grinned. “We would too.” Ruby squeezed her husband’s hand. Harry felt his worries dissolve in his stomach. Nerves had been unnecessary and they were even more so, now that the apologies were out of the way. It was a weight off Harry’s shoulders that he had not known was there.

XXX


	10. Chapter 10

The Friday of their week patrolling Hogsmeade rolled around more quickly than Harry had expected. Despite his general hatred of patrols, he had found that he had enjoyed this week. It was not as cold, especially towards the end of the week, as it usually was, and Harry had been blessed with two full days of patrolling with Ginny and a trip into Hogwarts, including a visit to Hagrid and McGonagall. All in all, it had been very pleasant.

And on this day, the penultimate patrol, Harry had paired himself with Vicky. He knew that it was rather obvious to place himself with Ginny every day and it was very important that she improve her relationships with all of the team and get to know everyone better. Patrols were excellent ways to get to know people better, which was why Harry had chosen Vicky.

It was not that Harry did not get along well with Vicky. On the contrary, she had been part of his first auror team and he trusted her with his life. He knew her incredibly well and would call her one of his closest friends - or would have done, perhaps six months ago. Since, she rarely came out to the pub with them, rarely chatted at work and never joined them when they all went out for a meal. She was also often late and her mind seemed to wander frequently at work. All of that gave her the perfect credentials for a bad friend and a bad employee. However, Harry was not so easily swayed. He knew Vicky and he wanted to get to the bottom of what had changed.

So, midday, after making her laugh quite a few times - which he was particularly proud of - they stopped at the Three Broomsticks for lunch. “My treat,” Harry said with a wink at Vicky. None of the others were in there yet, likely dragging the morning out so that they would have less time left after lunch. It was just what Harry had counted on. “Go and grab a table by the window. I’ll order us some drinks and get some menus.” Vicky smiled in return and headed over to the high tables by the windows.

Harry found himself at the bar. “Harry Potter,” Rosmerta said quietly. She had a habit of saying names loudly upon entrance and Harry had mentioned to her how inconvenient it was for him, a few patrol weeks ago, because it meant that people knew that he was patrolling and generally came to try and find him. It also potentially alerted criminals that he was there and to clear out.

“How are you, Rosey?” Harry said with a winning smile.

She shrugged and gestured to the inn around her with a tired smile. “Nothing to complain about, Harry, love. How’s that godfather of yours? And Remus? Has his wife had the baby yet?”

“Sirius is good, I think, and no, Tonks is at least another week away from her due date.”

“Ah, but you never know do you? It’s her third. They’ll be falling out at this point.” Harry wrinkled his nose and Rosmerta laughed, battling him with her bar cloth.

“What can I get for you, Harry? The usual?”

“Mmm, yes, just two apple juices please.” The tavernkeeper pulled out two bottle apple juices from below the bar, where Harry knew there were fridges. He accepted them with glasses with a nod of thanks and then swiped two menus from the side of the bar.

“I assume you lot will be in here tomorrow night to have some proper drinks,” Rosmerta called as he retreated back to his table with Vicky.

“Count on it!” he replied with a wink over his shoulder at her. Rosmerta’s chuckle died away as he reached the table and sat down opposite Vicky.

Vicky was smiling. She’d taken off her robes, leaving her in a thick-strapped blue t-shirt and high-waisted canvas trousers. Below the table, she wore thick boots, her signature shoe. “Thanks, Harry,” she said as she poured the juice into her glass. “Did you say that you were planning to come here tomorrow night?”

“Mmhmm,” Harry agreed, tipping the rim of the bottle to his mouth and enjoying the cool liquid. “End of patrol week. Will you join us? Drinks are on me.”

Vicky shrugged, her dark ponytail falling from her shoulder to her back. Her shoulders were very pale. When Harry had first met her, and for years afterwards, she had always been tanned. She and her husband had always been on holiday. When they weren’t on one, they were planning their next. Her tan had disappeared about a summer ago. It had happened gradually, like all physical things, and it was only when one paid attention that they could see that it had changed.

Harry sipped at his drink and replied to Vicky’s questions about Tonks and the baby, and then they ordered a sandwich each. They were discussing the case when the food arrived, two plates of hot sandwiches and chips.

“Don’t you have mayo?” Harry asked, nodding to the ketchup on the table, as the waiter retreated. Vicky cursed and turned to call after him.

Harry nearly gasped aloud but managed to keep a hold of himself as Vicky stood to go and ask the waiter for what she wanted. She was gone for only seconds, but it was long enough for Harry’s mind to go into overdrive. There was a burn on Vicky’s shoulder, a circular burn. Harry would be a rather poor auror if he did not recognise a cigarette burn. He would also be a poor auror if he did not understand the implications of that, or the possible repercussions of his bringing it up.

So, hating himself, Harry sipped at his apple juice and started to make an action plan, to find out what was going on and get Vicky away from her husband before it was too late.

XXX

The team did indeed end up at the Three Broomsticks on Saturday evening, after they had finished their shift. Vicky had even joined them, to Harry’s pleasant surprise. Supposing what he did about her, Harry had thought that she would feel she had to go home but she did not. She drank only apple juice, though, not the vodka and coke that was her staple.

“To Ginny’s first patrol week!” Ken called out in a toast when they had their second drink in front of them. Harry snorted and cheersed, meeting Ginny’s eye. It was the end of the week, a good week, a wonderful week, but the end. They had been paid yesterday and Harry knew what that meant: Ginny had the money to go and buy her furniture and there would be no more of an excuse to share meals together, to sit together on the sofa and watch films, to chat over breakfast, to see her toothbrush next to his. The thought temporarily saddened Harry. Tonight would be her last night because tomorrow she would go and buy what she needed.

Harry watched her all night, chatting with people. He was careful to avert his eyes frequently, especially when he was in an active conversation with someone. The last thing that they needed was somebody to be suspicious of them, especially when there was nothing really to be suspicious of. They weren’t in a relationship, so they had done nothing wrong.

Ginny chatted with Vicky for a good while, which Harry also appreciated. He had not even mentioned his lunch with Vicky to her, for fear that he would accidentally say too much. He trusted her but it was not his secret to tell. He was a professional and he would not say anything to anybody, not even when he knew it for certain. Well, nobody but his second-in-command.

Harry had not had the chance to talk to Ken yet, either. His plan was that they would sit down with Vicky on Monday and try and uncover what was happening, in a low-pressure, non-accusatory way. They did not want to spook her out. It was far better to do it with Ken by his side, or, Harry considered, Maggie. Generally, in cases of domestic abuse, they sent somebody of the same sex in to interview them, to make them feel safer. Yes, Harry considered, Maggie would be far better.

Having come to this conclusion and glanced again at Ginny, Harry stretched his shoulders and announced that he was going to the bar. Alex and Robin followed him and they made their order swiftly. Most of them drank the same thing every time they went out for drinks so it was simple to remember, especially between the three of them. Alex took the first lot to the table and then Robin and Harry followed, balancing drinks in their hands.

“Did you watch the Holyhead game last night?” Robin asked. They walked slowly because of how many drinks they were carrying between them.

“Yeah, I did actually,” Harry said, drawing Robin’s eyes to him, with raised brows. Harry didn’t usually watch quidditch games that weren’t Puddlemere, for a lack of time, but, last night, Ginny had been there and, of course, they had watched the game. She was a huge Holyhead fan. It was one of the first things that he had learned about her. “I wanted to watch some quidditch. What does it matter if my team wasn’t playing?”

“Did you support Holyhead or Portree?” Robin asked, her tone accusatory. Harry grinned at the memory. He had temporarily transfigured his Puddlemere scarf into Portree’s, just to irritate Ginny. Her face was so cute when she was annoyed.

“Portree,” Harry supplied when he found Robin looking at him expectantly.

“Of course,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “You’ve never had any taste- oh!”

Harry noticed the drinks on the floor first as the liquid soaked into his shoe. Then, he found Robin turning and shouting, “Oi!” after the man who had barged into her and knocked all of the drinks over, then scuppered away. She followed him, her finger pointing at him accusingly. The whole pub was looking at them. Classic Robin.

“Robin!” Harry called after her but she had stopped the man, her hand on his forearm and twirling him around to look at her. Harry was moving before he really knew what he was doing. He’d seen that look on enough criminals’ faces, that shifty look just before they get caught. Robin noticed it too. Harry could see it in her face as she regarded him.

He tugged his arm away and dashed off, Harry and Robin both in pursuit immediately. Harry was sure that he didn’t know what he was doing, as he was heading to the toilets, where there was little chance of an escape. Hearing the rest of the squad behind him, Harry caught him just as he got there, shoving him up against the toilet door, which immediately swung backwards, Harry following the motion.

“Robin, search his pockets,” he ordered.

The man was twitching. “You’re Harry Potter,” he said, in horror. Harry narrowed his eyes. “Please, I haven’t - I just wanted -”

Robin cried out, “aha!” and pulled out a small vial, about three quarters full with a red liquid that Harry immediately recognised as the African Root Pepper potion that they had spent the last month tracking. Harry’s eyes widened and he pulled himself together to read the man his rights.

“I am arresting you on suspicion of possession of the narcotic African Root Pepper without license. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”

“Should I take him in, boss?” Robin asked and Harry shook his head.

“We’ve been drinking. Ask Vicky to take him in. She’s only had juice all evening. I’m going to go home and get a sobering potion.”

Harry grimaced at the thought and then felt his chest still at the realisation that he would be unable to spend his last evening with Ginny, because he would have to interview the suspect. He cursed as he apparated away.

XXX

“You were fantastic,” Harry marvelled as he walked between two beds. Ginny gave him a grin, her hair still wild from the quidditch game. Harry had finally left the office at one and apparated immediately to the Sunday quidditch game, where Ginny was playing seeker in his stead. He’d seen a few moments of her incredible flying and then, only twenty minutes after he had arrived, she had caught the snitch in an impressive dive. Harry had not been able to get it off his mind since. “I mean, really fantastic.”

“Okay, Harry,” Ginny said, rolling her eyes as she stroked the bedding on one of the example beds in the store. “That’s enough, now. I’m fantastic, we all know it, but I need a bed.”

Harry nodded, glancing around him. If it were up to him, she’d stay in his apartment for longer. It felt as though he had just got used to her presence there and, now, suddenly, she was leaving. He knew that he was going to hate getting up in the morning - or getting back from the gym in the morning - to find the room empty, to eat breakfast alone.

“What sort of bed do you want?” he asked. Ginny hummed, leading him over somewhere else and pressing down on the mattress to see if it was comfortable enough.

“How was the interrogation, by the way?” Her voice was low and her eyes intensely interested.

Harry sighed, thinking of the way he had spent his morning instead of playing quidditch. “Not conclusive. He couldn’t name the supplier, so we took details about his life. Nothing remarkable. He didn’t get into Hogwarts because he didn’t have enough magic, though he had a bit. He was a disappointment to his parents.”

“Did he say why he wanted the ARP?”

Harry shook his head. “Not really. He just said that he’d heard about his effects.”

“What effects?” Ginny asked incredulously. “Death? Was it a suicide attempt?”

“We don’t think so. It was odd. He didn’t seem to know about the deaths. He’s been sent to a psychiatrist before trial.”

Ginny nodded slowly. “No more leads, then.”

“Nope, not really,” Harry agreed. “Come on, though, let’s choose you a bed. This is depressing talk.”

XXX

That night, Ginny lay in bed, her eyes on the ceiling. It was dark and quiet. Quiet was a disconcerting way to sleep for her. The Burrow had never been truly quiet, not even at night. There was always someone snoring. The closest she’d ever got to quiet was that year before she went to Hogwarts, when Ron was gone, but her mother snored too, albeit more softly than most of her brothers. At the Academy, they’d shared rooms with the Healers Academy and MU - the Magical University - so there had always been some stupid eighteen-year-old screaming or fucking. And then she’d been downstairs in the building and someone was always coming and going.

And then had been Harry’s flat. It wasn’t so much that Harry snored than that he was a heavy breather. She was conscious of his being there and she liked that. She liked there being someone else near her. Here, in this flat, was the first time in her life that she was truly alone, truly surrounded by silence.

Part of her wanted to sneak back into Harry’s flat - she still had a key - and sleep there. She would dearly miss that snippet of a life with Harry that they had shared. Breakfast together, toothbrushes touching, teasing conversations every night. It had been what Ginny imagined living with a boyfriend might be like, minus the sex and kissing.

They had done well, actually, in that regard. Ginny had caught Harry looking at her a few times and she had wished that something would happen a lot of times, but they had been good and just enjoyed each other’s company, learning everything about one another.

But, this, living on her own had been what she had wanted. She wanted to live by herself. It was why she had left her parents’ house, to live independently, on her own schedule, her own rules. The time with Harry had been nice and she had felt independent, truthfully. She and Harry did what they wanted when they wanted. They had dinner when they got in or three hours later, ate healthily most of the time but, one night, they had splurged on a takeaway, which Ginny still needed to pay Harry back for. She would get the money out tomorrow, now that she had been paid.

It was ironic that Ginny had spent most of her life waiting for money. All the Weasleys had known the effects of having no money and Ginny had looked forward to her student loan each time it went in. And, yet, this week, living with Harry, Ginny had not wanted money. She had not wanted to be paid, as she was on Friday, because it would mean leaving Harry.

And it had meant that. Because, here she was, alone, and yearning to return to the top floor and to Harry.


	11. Chapter 11

Harry moved Vicky into her safehouse himself. It was not even four o’clock on Monday by the time she was settled with her son and Harry had keyed her into the wards. 

“Harry, I’m not sure about this,” she said from her position on the sofa, curled up with a cup of tea. She was wearing another woman’s clothes.

“This is the safest place for you to be, Vicky,” Harry promised. “We are going to take him in for questioning before he knows that anything has changed. The team is already on its way.”

“He’ll be confused and angry because I asked him to pick the baby up from the daycare and he’ll get there and find out that I did.” There was a tremor in her voice. “Harry, I’m- he’s clever.”

Harry sat down on the sofa and took her hand. She squeezed it back, meeting his eyes. “We are looking after you, Vicky. There is going to be a female auror here twenty four hours a day. Your mum is on her way, too, and your son is safe here with you. The aurors are not going to rest until Peter is behind bars.” Tears escaped from Vicky’s eyes.

“He’s going to be angry.”

“I know,” Harry said in what he hoped was a soothing voice. Maggie entered the room then. Harry saw Vicky flinch at the entrance of somebody else, though her face relaxed at the sight of Maggie. “All wards set up, Mags?” Maggie nodded. “Perfect. I’ve just ordered us a takeaway so that Vic doesn’t have to do anything tonight.” Vicky smiled weakly.

“Perfect,” Maggie said, settling down into the armchair.

“You don’t have to stay,” Vicky said quietly. Her eyes were on her son, who was playing with blocks on the ground.

Maggie shook her head. “Vicky, we’re going to stay and eat with you. We’re going to introduce you to the auror who will be on duty tonight and we are going to wait until your mum is here.”

“She might be a long time. She can’t apparate because of her heart,” Vicky said. Harry squeezed his friend’s hand.

“Ken is driving her over here. Do not worry about a thing. You are safe now.”

Vicky looked down at her lap. Harry watched as her shoulders began to shake. “I’m sorry.”

“Do not apologise,” Harry said to her, swallowing his own tears. “Okay, Vic? Never apologise. None of this is your fault.”

“But if I’d told you-”

Harry shook his head. “You’ve told us now. It’s over now and, in a few days, Peter will be in prison, awaiting a trial, and you will be safe, wherever you want to be.”

“I want to get rid of the house,” she said, looking up at him with wet eyes, “and the car, and everything we ever bought together.”

“Then the team will sort it all for you. We’re your family and we’re going to look after you.”

A sob escaped Vicky’s throat, attracting the attention of her son, who crawled over and clung to her leg. She looked down at him with something Harry recognised as akin to pity and then she leaned her head on Harry’s shoulder, still crying.

XXX

Shell Cottage was a welcome sight as Ginny arrived on the beach, at the apparition point for her brother’s home in Cornwall. It was one of Ginny’s favourite places in the world, especially when there was a lot on her mind and she just wanted to relax. That lunch time, after a morning of chasing down leads and trying to figure out why Harry looked so upset, she had sat down for her lunch and called Fleur, begging to be allowed to come for dinner with them that night. It had not taken much begging at all.

And, so, here she was.

“Aunt Ginny! Aunt Ginny!” the children called as the two little girls flooded out of the house, approaching Ginny before she had even got halfway up the garden path. Her brother appeared at the doorway as Ginny went down on one knee to accept her niece’s hugs.

“Hey, Gin,” he said with a smile. “What kept you?”

Thinking of her awful, useless afternoon, Ginny gave her brother a tired smile and said, “Don’t ask.”

“I like your clothes, Aunt Ginny,” Victoire said, twirling a piece of her platinum blond hair around her finger. Dominique, with her matching hair, tried to copy her. Ginny grinned and scooped Dominique up into her arms.

“Thank you, Vic. These are my auror robes.”

“Did you catch any bad guys today?” Vic asked, her eyes wide and shining. Ginny grinned and shook her head.

“Not today, Vic.” Pouting, Vic ran back into the house, past her father, who greeted Ginny with a kiss to her cheek. “Thanks for having me, Bill.”

“Always, Gin. Tough day?”

Ginny sighed. “You could say that. Have you got a hoodie I could borrow? I want to get rid of these robes but I’ve only got a tank top and cargo pants underneath.”

Bill nodded, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Go and see Fleur. I’ll get you one now.”

Ten minutes later, Ginny found herself on Bill’s sofa, in an oversized hoodie with the flaking words “Gringotts Academy of Cursebreaking” on the front, a cup of tea cradled in her hands. “Dinner will be ten minutes, Ginny,” Fleur called from the kitchen. Ginny smiled and called back her thanks, watching with contentment as Victoire showed Dominique how to put a dress on her barbie doll.

They sat around the table for dinner, which was nice. It reminded Ginny of the good parts of living at the Burrow and, then, with a twinge, reminded her of sitting across the table from Harry and the fact that, now, she would be eating alone again like she had at the Academy. For now, though, she would steal her brother’s company and his dinner table and not think about being lonely. She had wanted to move out of her parents’ house after all.

“So, you’re enjoying your job, Gin?” Bill asked as she tucked into her lasagne. Swallowing, Ginny nodded.

“I am. I’ve got a nice team.”

“Ah, oui,” Fleur said, her eyes lighting up. “You are working for ‘Arry, yes?”

Ginny glanced at Bill, furrowing her brow. “Yes, Harry Potter. You know him?”

Fleur shrugged. “Of course. He came to Beauxbatons.”

Ginny let out a laugh at herself. “Of course. I forgot about that. Did you know him well?”

Fleur bobbed her head to either side. “A bit. He stayed with me for a summer once, while his godfather went on a mission for the Order.” Ginny’s eyes widened. She would call that more than a bit. “He was one of the few boys who did not stare at me like I was some sort of otherworldly creature. He was able to talk to me, so he was my friend. I have not seen him since he defeated Voldemort, however.”

Ginny smiled. “You should come to the office one day and surprise him. I’m sure he’d like to see you again.”

Bill cleared his throat. “You speak to him a lot then, Gin?”

Ginny felt her face flush despite herself. “A bit. The teams are very big.”

“Mmhmm,” Bill said, nodding knowingly. “And does he know that you mapped out your life together as a child? What age did you say you’d marry him by? 21? You’re a few years late, there, Gin.” Fleur’s laugh was a tinkling sound.

“Don’t,” Ginny groaned. “I’ve already had Tonks threaten to tell him that I made her pretend to be him so that I could marry him.”

Bill boomed out a laugh, startling the children and making them giggle. “I forgot Tonks was in the auror office too. How is she? Do you see her often? Tonks was Charlie’s first girlfriend,” he added to his wife.

“I always assumed that Charlie was asexual,” she said, startled. Ginny snorted.

“Tonks is married to Harry’s - well, I’m not sure.”

“She’s married to Remus Lupin,” Bill said. “He was one of James Potter’s best friends, along with Sirius Black.” Ginny nodded.

“Yeah, that’s right. Anyway, Tonks isn’t actually in the office at the moment. She’s very pregnant. She came in to go for lunch with Harry and I saw her then.”

“That’s nice. Was she pleased to see you?” Bill said. “I was quite disappointed when she and Charlie broke up.”

“Mm,” Ginny agreed. “She seemed happy to see me, I’m not sure. I met their other children too. Harry got on with them well.”

“Did he?” Bill said. His lips were twitching. Ginny narrowed her eyes.

“Something to say, Bill?”

“No, Ginny.” Bill smiled. “Isn’t it lovely that you get to work with your first love?”

Fleur’s gasp was incredibly dramatic when Ginny hit her brother in the face with a sheet of lasagne.

XXX

Harry stared at the letter in front of him, nibbling on his lower lip. “What do you think, boss?” Maggie asked, her face grave. She had been the one to take the call from Eliza Beddon, the girl who had lost all of her family over the past years, her sister only recently, to ARP. She had found something of her sister’s and had called them immediately.

Maggie had gone to see Eliza and retrieve the letter, signed by an M and using lots of her sister’s personal details, which Eliza confirmed in the short interview Maggie conducted. “I think M gives us a lead,” Harry said noncommittally.

“Then why aren’t you excited?” Maggie pressed.

Harry sighed, leaning back. “Mags, it’s one letter. We’re assuming it’s a woman from previous leads, okay, but how many women exist in the wizarding world with names beginning with M? You, for a start.” Maggie gave him an unamused look, cocking her head to the side. Harry clucked his tongue. “And that is if it is a woman and she is from the wizarding world. Anybody can make a potion. I agree that it does narrow suspects down but we’ve not exactly got a list of suspects who we can discount because their name doesn’t start with M. And there is always the huge possibility that M has nothing to do with them, that it’s a nickname, that it’s a code. This is great, yeah, okay, it’s better than nothing, but it’s not a breakthrough.”

Maggie sighed, leaning back against her own chair in defeat. “What do you think they were offering her?” she asked quietly.

Harry’s eyes went back to the paper. Clara Beddon, who the letter was addressed to, was a muggle girl. The letter said, we’ll give you what your sister had.

“We’ll give you what your sister had,” Harry repeated. He sighed. “I don’t know, Mags. Are we sure her sister killed herself? I mean, could she have died from ARP and it was a threat towards Clara?”

Maggie shook her head. “But the tone of the letter doesn’t suggest that. It’s almost friendly. Harry, I’m- her sister had magic.” Harry furrowed his brow, looking down again. “What if that is what the letter is promising?”

Harry looked at Maggie incredulously. “Maggie, you know that is impossible. Magic can’t be obtained like that. You have to be born with it.”

“Do muggles know that?”

Harry swallowed, his aunt Petunia suddenly bursting to mind, the memories that the old potions professor had given him before he had gone to surrender to Voldemort. She had wanted magic. She had asked to be allowed to go to Hogwarts. “It’s a good point, Maggie,” he said slowly, “and it’s a really good line of inquiry.”

The other victims raced through Harry’s mind. The lawyer who had been a wizard with poor magic, hiding in the muggle world. There’d been a squib, a Hogwarts dropout, a witch who had run away before she could learn any magic. What if this was it, what if they all wanted more magic? Was that what the potion was promising?

Their last victim, the not victim, the one they’d caught with the potion. What had he said? “I just wanted -” and he hadn’t finished. Had he just wanted magic?

“Dear God, Maggie,” Harry said. “You’re a genius. Get the team together. We finally have a real lead.”

XXX

They celebrated a few nights later, by going out to Manchester. Ginny was still on a high. They all were. The news that they finally had something to chase, rather than these nothing leads, that they finally had a connection was more than welcome. Ginny had yet to make an arrest, even over a month after being part of the aurors. She was sure she wasn’t the only one but it was making her feel rather unproductive, although she knew that, once they solved this one, it would be far more important than any small arrest.

Vicky wasn’t with them, obviously. Ginny did not have the details about Vicky but all the team knew that she was under witness protection and that another team was finding the man who put her there. Other team members had speculated but Ginny had seen the serious look on Harry’s face when he had brought it up so she had not asked any more questions.

But everyone else was there at the pub and then everybody under the age of 35 was at Aparecium as they stumbled in, finally reaching the front of the queue. They paid their entrance fees and headed into where the music was booming. Robin grabbed Ginny’s hand and dragged her towards the bar.

“What we getting, Ginners?” Robin asked, bouncing from her heel to her toe and drumming her fingers against the metal bar. Ginny grinned. She had not had many drinks at the pub. “I was thinking shots. We have had a successful week, after all.”

“Very true,” Ginny said wisely. “Tequila?”

Robin grinned. “Tequila.”

They found the rest of the aurors about ten minutes later and they were greeted with lots of grins and laughs, especially when Robin passed about the tray of shots. Ginny watched Harry take his and smiled at him, meeting his eyes. His own smile faltered and he looked away. Ginny swallowed her disappointment. It had been nearly a week now since she and Harry had stopped living together and she missed him.

Ginny shook herself, stealing the final shot from Robin’s tray. She did not need to think about how much she missed Harry while she was drunk. That would only lead to sadness, possible crying and definite talking. And she wasn’t allowed to talk about it, to anybody.

Fifteen minutes or so later, Harry and Alex headed to the bar to get more drinks, leaving the rest of them dancing to Wannabe by the Spice Girls, a song that Ruby openly claimed as her favourite. “Ginny, that guy is checking you out!” Robin whisper-shouted into her ear while Ginny was admiring Ruby’s knowledge of the dance routine.

She blinked and turned to Robin and then to the guy she was nodding at. He was, in fact, checking her out. It was not such a rare thing, Ginny admitted, on a night out to have a man check her out. She rarely did anything about it, because she was with her friends and she wasn’t about to ditch them for some random man…

But there were lots of her friends together and she didn’t need to stay with them. And - Ginny swallowed - it wasn’t like she had anybody that would make her not want to kiss that man, much as her heart was telling her. Her head knew she wasn’t with Harry, had no commitment to him, was literally forbidden from being with him, but her heart was none-the-wiser.

Shrugging, Ginny grinned, meeting the man’s eyes. He was fairly good looking and where had following her heart ever got her anyway?

XXX

Harry arrived back with a tray of drinks, winding his way through the crowds, Alex at his back with the two drinks which would not fit on the tray. “There you go, Rubester,” Harry said, handing her the dark drink that she had requested. He passed around the rest until he only had two more drinks - one for him, one for Ginny - and abandoned the tray. “Where’s Gin?” he asked brightly.

Robin giggled, sipping at her drink and pointing slightly away from their group, to where Ginny was happily making out with some random guy. Harry’s chest constricted. He brought his drink to his mouth and drank it in one go and then started on Ginny’s.

“Woah, boss,” Stacey laughed, slinging an arm around his shoulder. “Ginny wanted that, you know.”

Harry laughed, turning Stacey’s half hug into a sort of swirl in time to the music. “She seems busy,” he said, hoping the music drowned out the bitter tone in his voice.


End file.
